(CNN) -- Police officers in central Taiwan arrested a man for stealing a bicycle this week and originally planned to lock him up for theft charges.

However, the police later discovered that the man was so poor that they not only did not prosecute him but instead decided to donate a bike to him.

According to police officers in central Taiwan's Chiayi County, the man stole the bicycle from a high school near his home in order to help save his daughter time in walking from her vocational school to the hospital.

His daughter usually walked 10 kilometers (6 miles) to take care of him in the hospital. The man has often been ill and has had to be hospitalized, police said.

Police said that the man originally told his daughter that he had bought the bicycle second-hand.

However, later the former owner of the bike recognized it. Both father and daughter were taken in by the police.

Police officers learned that the man was living in desperate conditions, with no access to water or electricity and was living in an empty shipping container beside a graveyard.

Chiayi police officers not only did not press charges against the old man but jointly bought a new bike for the girl.