Spare change

Good news for cash-strapped Londoners: If you happen to catch a stealth hand reaching for your purse, it doesn't necessarily mean you're being robbed; it could be a ‘putpocket' instead.

A new scheme by British broadband provider TalkTalk is giving away £100,000 by slipping it into, rather than out of, the pockets of unsuspecting passers-by. By recruiting a team of 20 highly skilled former pickpockets to sneak between £5 and £20 notes into unguarded bags across the city, the company hopes to brighten up people's lives in unusual ways. The initiative will run until the end of August in London before the ‘putpockets' venture out to the rest of the country.

Said Chris Fitch, a reformed pickpocket who now heads the project:

It feels good to give something back for a change -- and Britons certainly need it in the current economic climate. Every time I put money back in someone's pocket, I feel less guilty about the fact I spent many years taking it out.

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