The staff at Vienna's St Stephen's Cathedral were in for quite the surprise when they opened a parcel and discovered a human skull inside.
Although taken aback at first, everything was explained when they read the letter accompanying the unusual parcel.
Apparently, a German tourist had stolen the skull from the cathedral around 60 years ago while on a guided tour of the catacombs beneath St Stephen's. The letter said that the man felt guilty about taking the skull and wanted to send it back to make peace with himself as he came towards the end of his life.
It is unclear whose skull was taken 60 years ago, but the remains have now been reinterred.
"After his clarification of the matter, it was touching that someone would wish to make amends for an act of youthful exuberance," Franz Zehetner, the cathedral archivist, told the BBC. "Also, that he had carefully preserved the skull over the years, even though it was not according to the rules, instead of carelessly getting rid of it."
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