A hard-working immigrant saved up thousands of dollars to put her daughter through college, only to see the nest egg vanish when a thief swiped the funds from the family’s Bronx business, cops and the student said Monday.

While a new clerk was distracted, the creep reached across the counter of the B&B African Caribbean Market on May 8, grabbed the coffee can stuffed with about $4,000 cash and lit out — leaving the worker none the wiser until the owner came by hours later and noticed the can was gone.

“My mom called me and she was frantic,” said Melody Adu, a 19-year-old psychology student attending Howard University partially on the shop’s earnings. “She said the money was gone.”

It was only when they replayed the day’s surveillance video that staff realized what happened.

The crafty crook strolled into the shop on Boston Road near East 167th Street around 10:55 a.m., and asked the clerk, 46, for her help grabbing items from high shelves behind the counter, police said.

He finally asked the worker to grab something from the back of the store, then the opportunistic thief reached around a glass partition to snatch the paper-wrapped coffee can, stuffed it into a bag and walked off, cops said.

“My mom would put a $20 or $50 bill in it at the end of each day,” said Adu, explaining that her mother, Belinda, a Ghanaian immigrant, had squirreled away at least $4,000 over the past two years to support the teen’s education.

The “clueless” clerk was fired, Adu said, but the sacking can’t replace what was lost — though the thief might be able to.

“If he has the money still, he should give it back,” said Adu. “You stole a person’s hard work and savings from two years in a matter of seconds.”

The alleged gratuity grabber is estimated to be between 18 and 25, and was last seen wearing a black baseball cap with a purple bill, and a purple shirt.

If you have any tips of your own, you can call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-577-8477.