Monkey thief steals cash from jewellery store

A thieving monkey has been filmed ransacking a jewellery shop and running off with cash in India.

The primate is said to have deliberately distracted staff by throwing a piece of fruit into the shop before "advancing towards the cash drawers", The Hindu Times reports.

"The monkey threw a guava inside the shop. Then it entered the store in the pretext of taking back the fruit. We threw the fruit back but it entered the shop anyway," the unnamed shop owner said.

"It sat for almost 20 minutes in the store and then it opened the drawer and took away cash."

More than $200 is believed to have been stolen from the store, which is located in the city of Guntur, on India's east coast.

It is not known if the cash has been recovered.

Monkeys, which are revered by Hindus, often run riot in urban centres in India, to the point where a "monkey prison" has been established for the more criminally minded primates.

One such jail, in the northern city of Patiala, houses 11 monkeys apprehended for thieving and attacking people.

"It's unlikely that any of them will ever be paroled," warden Ram Tirath told The Daily Telegraph.