A Chinese couple who were tourists in Japan have returned a stolen toilet seat to a hotel, explaining that they didn’t realise it belonged to the facility.
The couple with their 5-year-old child, from Taizhou, a city in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, were part of a tour group visiting Japan. They found the spare seat under their bed and decided to add it to their luggage.
The Japanese hotel in Nagoya contacted a travel agency after a toilet seat was reported missing from a room where two tourists stayed on Monday.
The agency said the toilet seat was sent back to the hotel after the couple and their travel group arrived at Mount Fuji.
The travel company released a statement on behalf of the couple, who said they found the spare toilet seat under the bed and thought it was property left behind by previous hotel guests.
“I offer my sincere apology and regrets,” the statement said. “I hope the hotel and the local travel agency can treat this with leniency. I promise this improper behaviour won’t happen again.”
According to news Chinese media The Paper, the hotel has decided not to take any action against the couple.
The couple said they plan to apologise to the hotel’s parent company during their upcoming scheduled stay at another facility owned by the chain.