A 22 year-old college student in Guangdong has been jailed for 2 and a half years after he stole 11,000 yuan from dormitories on his campus, QQ News reports. He stole the money to pay off his girlfriend’s credit card debts. In a bizarre twist of fate, the girl ended up dumping him anyway.

Between September 1 and October 18 last year, Xiao Qiu, who is in his senior year at Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, stole the money from four dormitories in his building.

On March 15, a tearful Xiao Qiu was told at Haizhu District People’s Court that he would have to pay a fine of 2,000 yuan on top of his prison sentence.

It all started when Xiao Qiu’s girlfriend told him she had been cheated, and ended up with over 10,000 yuan in credit card debt. Wanting to impress to her, Xiao Qiu decided to help.  Initially, he helped pay off part of the debt with his part time job at Starbucks and money borrowed from friends. But after losing his job at Starbucks, he resorted to stealing.

The last time he stole money, he was caught on security camera and he was arrested on October 31.

The court ignored the pleas of Xiao Qiu, his parents and his lawyer to give him an opportunity to turn over a new leaf.

Xiao Qiu