Police in Taiwan who had arrested a man for stealing a bicycle discovered he was so poor that they decided to have a whip-round and buy him a bike.

The man, surnamed Huang, stole the bicycle from a high school near his home in Chiayi city in central Taiwan to save his daughter from her daily 5km walk to the closest bus stop on the way to her vocational school, the China Times reported on Thursday.

Huang had told his daughter he bought the bicycle second-hand, but after it was recognised by its former owner both father and daughter were taken in by the police.

Once police officers heard about the desperate conditions that the Huang family was living in -- with no access to water or electricity -- they had a collection and bought a new bike for the girl.