The owner of a spice stall in Yishun is admonishing the man seen on CCTV camera for stealing S$800 cash from the business to own up and return the money.

Details of the incident that happened on June 3 just before 12pm were put up in a Facebook post by Jeya Seelan, the owner of the spice stall, Jeya Spices.

The stall is located at Block 294 Yishun Street 22.

Workers weren't tending to stall at that time

Accompanying the post are two screen shots of the alleged perpetrator, whose face could only be partially seen, as he was wearing a surgical face mask.

The alleged thief was dressed in dark clothing and had a pompadour with cropped sides.

According to the post, the alleged thief struck when two of the workers were not tending to the stall momentarily.

One worker had gone to the washroom, while the other was tending to the coconut machine.

Used stolen money to buy things at stall

The perpetrator took the opportunity to swipe the entire plastic container filled with cash and allegedly put it into his bag, the post said.

To add insult to injury, the alleged thief subsequently made a purchase with the money he took at the very same stall where he nicked the cash.

Offer to let alleged thief return money

The owner wrote in his post that he would have offered to give the alleged thief any merchandise for free if he explained his situation and did not resort to stealing.

Jeya wrote: "Life is not easy bro. It’s not easy for anybody. If you are struggling to make ends meet, I would have given it to you for free if you explained to me your situation. We have CCTV footage of the incident, but this is the closest we could get of his face."

The stall owner also wrote that he is refraining from reporting the matter to the police, and is offering the alleged thief to step forward.

Jeya wrote: "We are appealing for the perpetrator to own up because we don’t want to make a police report yet, and make a permanent stain on his record."

He also urged eyewitnesses to come forward as well.

Alleged thief accompanied by female companion

According to the footage that captured the incident, the perpetrator is in his 20s and has a visible tattoo on his right forearm.

He was accompanied by a female companion at that time of the incident.