Police will oversee collections from the sin bins

A wheelie bin has been put at the entrance to Lincoln Cathedral where people can return items like pilfered library books and hotel bath robes.

Church organisers behind the idea hope people will leave the cathedral with clearer consciences.

Goods or items which cannot be returned to their rightful owners will be donated to charity.

Borrowed treasure

Lincolnshire Police will oversee the collection, which is an amnesty, just in case anything sinister is deposited in the two black dustbins.

It could be anything from hotel towels to jewellery Revered Ian Silk

The scheme at the cathedral, famous for its imp gargoyle and copy of Magna Carta, has been thought up by the organisers of a series of talks on the Ten Commandments and has been used in Liverpool, York, London and Coventry.

Reverend Ian Silk said: "If there are folk who have stolen something in the past, but they can't actually get it back to the person because life has moved on - but it is on their conscience - then they can bring it."

"It could be anything from hotel towels to jewellery, who knows what might be put in.

"The bins are going to be here every Wednesday evening for the next six or seven weeks so if people think of things then they can come back.