Around 50 sheep wandered into a Penny supermarket in the small Bavarian town of Burgsinn in southern Germany, the retailer said.

The sheep lingered among the shelves and checkout area for about 20 minutes, after they had strayed from their flock before entering the store on Monday. It is unclear how the sheep broke loose. 

The discount retailer has managed to turn the incident into something of a guerrilla marketing campaign, receiving a flood of responses on its Instagram page.

Store manager first thought he was the butt of a joke

Speaking to Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper, store manager Jürgen Kippes said he initially thought he was being pranked.

"I've never experienced anything like this before,” he told the newspaper. "I thought we were on 'Candid Camera'.”

During their short visit, the flock managed to cause a fair bit of mess.

"If they had run to the right toward the fruit and vegetables — God forbid — you wouldn't have been able to get them out," the newspaper quoted Kippes as saying.

Getting the sheep to leave the supermarket premises took some doing, according to the manager.

"We tried to push them out, but it didn't work," Kippes said.

It was only when an employee banged loudly on the cash register that the animals got startled and exited through the sliding door into the parking lot.

Flock possibly distracted by acorns, shepherd says

The flock's shepherd told Bavarian radio that he suspected the sheep were distracted by acorns on the ground and lost contact with the rest of the flock.

He suspects that "someone probably ran into the supermarket with a bag and then they followed," with the animals perhaps mistaking bags for feed or a bag of salt.

Penny said the supermarket was cleaned after the incident and it does not plan to seek compensation from the farmer. Penny also said it would like to sponsor the 50 sheep for a year. 

Edited by: Karl Sexton