A California man thought he was doing a good deed when he picked up a hitchhiker outside his home on Monday — that is, until he saw all the blood on his clothes.

The Highland resident agreed to take the “transient” to San Bernardino, but also suspected that he had done something bad before they crossed paths, so he decided to call police after dropping him off, the sheriff’s office reports.

It turned out that 24-year-old Jonathan Padilla, the man hitchhiking, had allegedly stabbed a person to death not far from the resident’s home — and was trying to flee.

“The resident said he was leaving his home on Mira Vista Ave. when [Padilla] came out of the nearby wash area and asked him for a ride to San Bernardino,” police said in a news release. “The resident gave [Padilla] a ride and saw what appeared to be blood on his clothing and other evidence indicating a serious assault occurred. When the resident returned home, they notified police. Deputies searched the wash area adjacent to the neighborhood and located a victim suffering from stab wounds. Medical aid responded, but the victim was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

After a brief investigation, detectives determined that Padilla had stabbed the victim “for an unknown reason” and tried to escape in the resident’s car. He was tracked to a home in Los Angeles on Tuesday and arrested without incident.

Cops booked Padilla on murder charges and set his bail at $1 million. He was being held at the San Bernardino County Central Detention Center and expected to be arraigned on Friday.