The adage that money will burn a hole in your pocket probably rings true for a Verulam man whose pants were stolen in a mugging in Canelands‚ north of Durban‚ on Wednesday.

It is understood that R600 in cash had been stashed in the pockets of the pants‚ which had been stripped off by two men brandishing knobkerries.

Reaction Unit South Africa spokesman Prem Balram said that their emergency call centre had received word of the incident when a husband and wife had driven into a horse-riding school and begged those there to raise the alarm.

“Officers found a 45-year-old man with injuries to his right arm. The man was found without his pants. His 34-year-old wife was seated next to him in the front passenger seat‚” he said.

Balram said that the woman reported that she and her husband had come from collecting donations at a mosque and were travelling towards their home in Stanger when they’d taken a shortcut in Canelands and their car had stalled.

“They were then approached by two men who attacked them with knobkerries. They removed R500 in cash from the woman and assaulted her husband.

“The woman alleged that the men then removed her husband pants which contained R600 in cash and fled.”

Balram said that while medics attended to the injured man‚ his staff purchased a pair of pants to restore his dignity.