It could have been the perfect crime. The plan was to steal some computer equipment in a Berlin office building.

After setting off an alarm at Berlin's Technical Museum late Tuesday, a 35-year-old cat burglar managed to escape two security guards by jumping out of a window.

Then he scaled a three-meter (10-foot) fence and got snagged by a ring on the middle finger of his right hand. The bloke managed to free himself, but only after he ripped off his finger.

The pain from the severed digit was too much to bear, so he returned to the scene of the crime and asked security guards to help him find it. They found the finger, but turned him over to the cops.

Doctors were unable to reattach the finger, a police spokeswoman said.

The man's comment on his misdeed afterwards: "Breaking and entering just doesn't pay."