A group of armed robbers were arrested after a shop owner tricked them into returning to his business so police could arrest them.

The owner of the e-cigarette shop in Belgium, who identified himself as Didier, was confronted by six people who intended to rob him at around 3pm.

In a 14-minute discussion with the thieves, Didier suggested they should come back later in the day when the shop was closing so he could give them more money.

“I told them clearly that 3pm is not the best time to hold up a store,” Didier said. He then told the thieves, “You’ll take 1,000 bucks, but if you come back tonight you might be able to take more.”

When the group left, Didier contacted police in the town of Charleroi, south of Brussels, and asked them to wait for the thieves to return.

“It’s like it was a comedy,” Didier told the BBC. “They’re being called the worst robbers in Belgium.

“When I called the police, they didn’t believe [the thieves] would come back.”

To their surprise, the group returned twice to collect the money. First, they arrived at 5.30pm but were sent away again because it was not closing time.

When they returned an hour later, undercover police officers were waiting to arrest them.