Thousands of allegedly stolen pairs of shoes have been discovered by police at a home in Kilsyth, in Melbourne's east.

Police said there had been a series of shoe thefts from homes and charity bins in the Kilsyth and Mooroolbark areas over the past three months.

They said when they visited a house to question someone over the thefts they "unexpectedly" discovered thousands of second-hand shoes.

A 57-year-old man has been arrested over the incident.

Senior Constable Peter Baker said the man had since confessed to taking the shoes.

"We went and spoke to the male, asked him if he knew anything about it and he said, 'yes, I do'," Senior Constable Baker said.

"We asked if we could see the shoes, he showed us, he invited us into his house.

"Once we got inside we saw multiple pairs of shoes; once we went into the bedroom there were about 10 times as many as that, so it was a bit of a shock, but there were shoes throughout the unit."

"There are a number of expensive shoes in there - Vans, Adidas, Asics, that sort of thing.

"His explanation was that he just likes shoes, so he just went out most mornings on his bike and would find shoes that he liked, put them in a plastic bag and take them home."

Senior Constable Baker said while theft was a crime, it was unusual to prosecute over such matters as stealing from charity bins.

Police said they were now "playing the charming prince" in order to find the owners of the shoes, and had invited people to attend Mooroolbark police station this Sunday "to see if the shoe fits".