The woman whose "Open letter to a thief" is printed below has a simple message for the person who broke into her home – they have taken something which means the world to her but nothing to them.
The 45-year-old mum of two boys contacted the Leicester Mercury after an intruder entered her home in Aylestone, Leicester, and stole her handbag from the kitchen last Monday.
She suggested we print it on the letters page. We thought it deserved greater prominence.
The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, explained why the loss of the poetry cards that were in the bag had hit her so hard.
"My mum was diagnosed the day before my birthday in July 2010 and we were told she would have maybe another two years, but she became ill very rapidly and died five weeks later.
"She always used to buy those little cards for me and my sister. They're just simple little things which are the size of a credit card, but they have lovely poems and words printed on them.
"She did that for years, absolutely years, and I kept them all in my purse.
"There were loads of them and they mean more to me than anything else – even though the handbag itself belonged to her.
"There was also a pair of her old gloves in the bag. They still smelled of her perfume, but the only things I really want back are those little cards.
"They say it gets easier to cope with the loss of a loved one as the days go by, but it doesn't. It really doesn't.
"I've lost my best friend and I think about her every day. I still haven't finished the grieving process, but this burglary was the straw that broke the camel's back."
The break-in happened after she had just finished a stack of ironing.
"I'd taken a pile of ironing upstairs to my son's bedroom when I heard an almighty bang," she said.
"I went downstairs again and the back door was swinging open. One of my sons and I went outside with torches and had a look around, but we couldn't see anything.
"It was windy that night so I started to think that the door had just blown open.
"A little while later, I was going to drive my son's girlfriend home and that's when I realised my bag was gone from the kitchen.
"That's when I got really upset, knowing what was in it."
To add insult to injury, the woman's bank card was used to withdraw £300 from her account, apparently within minutes of the burglary. Happily, her bank has refunded her.
Her house keys and car keys were also in the bag. She has changed the locks at home and spent more than £300 getting new keys for her car.
Her letter was written late at night and as the full impact of the burglary was hitting home.
"I sat down and wrote the letter at 11.30pm a couple of days afterwards," she said.
"I just wanted the person who did this to me to understand the impact it has had.
"As I said in the letter, he clearly knows where I live and I was just hoping he would have the heart to return those cards because I want them back so much. It's over to him now."
A police spokeswoman said the force was investigating.
Any information can be passed to Detective Constable Kim Potter on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
AN OPEN LETTER TO A THIEFDo you have a heart? Would the very kind people who walked into my kitchen at 8pm on Monday, February 4 and helped themselves to my handbag with its contents please find the heart to return my personal, sentimental possessions that can never be replaced?
I am talking about the sentimental poem gift cards given to me by my late mum and my friends when I lost my mum.
You can keep the £300 cash (withdrawn at Fullhurst Avenue half-an-hour later, at 8.29pm), make-up, perfume, gloves, bag and even the Tampax, but if you have a heart of any description, please just pop the cards in a bag and throw them over the 6ft wall you managed to scale.
These are the last things my mum gave to me and I would love nothing more than to have them back.
You have no idea of the past two years I have endured since I lost my mum.
There again, you probably have read the contents of the letter which is also in the bag.
But to have these cards back, I would forgive you for what you have done.
I don't want to know who you are or where you're from.
I will not even emphasise the inconvenience this has caused, as at the end of the day I understand you may have your reasons for doing this to me.
I am not a bad person, never have been – just drawn the short straw in the past two years, and this has not helped.
I do hope that you never have to go through what I have as I would never wish this on my worst enemy.
So please, if you do have a heart, return them.
You know where I live.
Born into a Bavarian farming family in 1927, although his father was a policeman, Joseph Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth at the age of 14, as was required of young Germans of the time.
The son of anti-Nazi parents, he was let out soon after because of his intention to study for the priesthood.
He was ordained into the priesthood in 1951 and went on to become a professor, teaching at the University of Bonn from 1959. In 1966 he took a chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tuebingen.
As a young priest he was considered a progressive, but as a professor during the student unrest of the 1960s he became increasingly conservative.
He moved to Regensburg University in his native Bavaria in 1969 and went on to become its dean and vice-president.
He was named Cardinal of Munich by Pope Paul VI in March 1977. He spent 24 years as one of the senior figures in the Vatican, heading the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The 85-year-old, who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 at the age of 78 following the death of John Paul II, was one of the oldest new popes in history when he was elected.
According to the New Statesman: "Benedict's election in April 2005 brought despondency to Catholic progressives, who feared the new pope would attempt to purge the Church of its 'liberals'.
"Gleeful traditionalist Catholics confidently expected that Benedict's election would signal the purging of Catholic liberalism and the revoking of the norms of Vatican II.
"As it happened, his first year brought no marked retrenchment: the reverse, in fact; or so it seemed. Benedict spent half a day with Father Hans Küng, the Swiss liberal theologian.
"He also gave a lengthy private audience to the late Oriana Fallaci, an Italian atheist, feminist and critic of Catholicism."
The piano-playing professor, the eighth German to head the Catholic Church, has said he never wanted to be Pope, however.
He took charge as one of the biggest scandals to plague the Catholic Church - that of child sex abuse by priests - was breaking.
The verdict is out on his handling of the scandal – his supporters claim he showed decisiveness and has done more than any other pope to confront abuse, while his critics say he failed to do enough.
Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican official in charge of prosecuting priests alleged to have committed serious sexual crimes, told L'Avvenire - the Italian Bishops Conference newspaper - Joseph Ratzinger "showed wisdom and firmness" in handling cases of abuse when he was head of the department in charge of Church discipline, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for four years before becoming Pope.
Pope Benedict XVI visited England and Scotland on a four-day Papal visit in September 2010. He delivered a speech at Westminster Hall, met with the leaders of other Christian traditions, took part in a service of Evening Prayer with the Archbishop of Canterbury and led a prayer vigil.
The stopover, the first papal visit since 1982, was largely considered a success.
Huge crowds gathered along The Mall in central London to greet the Pope on his way to the Hyde Park prayer vigil, and millions tuned in to his speeches, most of which were broadcast live on TV.
But the Pope was criticised for not meeting victims of abuse in public while visiting the UK. He spoke with a number of victims in a private meeting, but faced criticism about the secrecy surrounding the gathering.
Many have credited Pope Benedict XVI with modernising the Catholic Church, however – he joined social networking site Twitter in December 2012, and has since posted messages several times a week.
Last month he urged Catholics to join the site in order to spread the word and convert atheists to the faith.
And in 2010 the Pope hit the headlines after saying the use of condoms is acceptable in exceptional circumstances.
In interviews published in a book entitled Light of the World, the Pope said condoms could reduce the risk of HIV infection in certain cases, such as for a male prostitute. The Vatican later clarified the comments, however, saying he did not mean they could be used to avoid pregnancy.
But the Pope's remarks have in the past caused offence. He has spoken out against homosexuality and once deplored rock music as "the vehicle of anti-religion". He has said anyone who supports the "grave sins" of abortion and euthanasia should be denied Communion.
In 2006 he was slammed for a speech in Bavaria in which he drew upon a 14th Century Christian emperor's quote which said the Prophet Muhammad brought the world only evil and inhuman things. The Pope later apologised for causing offence to Muslims.
The following year Jewish leaders and community groups criticised Pope Benedict XVI after he formally removed restrictions on celebrating an old form of the Latin mass which includes prayers calling for the Jews to 'be delivered from their darkness' and converted to Catholicism.
In May last year the pope's butler was formally charged over suspicions he leaked a large number of confidential letters addressed to Benedict XVI which revealed alleged corruption and nepotism at the Holy See. He was convicted by a Vatican tribunal in October for leaking secret papal papers.
But in December 2012 Pope Benedict XVI granted Paolo Gabriele Christmas pardon Saturday, forgiving him in person during a jailhouse meeting for stealing and leaking his private papers.
After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment. The Vatican said he couldn't continue living or working in the Vatican, but said it would find him housing and a job elsewhere.
Twitter is abuzz with discussion about Pope Benedict XVI's resignation - #Pope is currently the top UK trend and the fifth-highest worldwide trend, while Papal and Vatican are also trending in the UK.
