A young man from Nanjing, China, was arrested last week for stealing more than 800 books on topics ranging from sociology and history to poetry and philosophy, according to reports on Monday. When questioned by the police who arrested him, the man said he stole the books because he was searching their pages for “the meaning of life.”

The thief, identified only as “Mr. Lee,” stole the books from a single bookstore over the course of about six months. He would visit the store three or four times a week and swipe several volumes each time. Plain-clothes police officers began to monitor the shop after the owner filed a report about the unusually large volume of highbrow reading material that was going missing each week.

It didn’t take long for the officers to identify and arrest the culprit, who admitted to having pilfered over 800 books from the store to further his quest to discover the purpose of mankind’s existence. Mr. Lee admitted that, after having devoured more literature than most college graduates read during the course of their formal education, he was no closer to understanding who, what or why man is. “I was hoping to find the answer by reading those books,” the thief said, but he still “couldn’t comprehend the meaning of life.”

Mr. Lee is not alone in his burning desire to learn the answer to what philosophers and scientists call “the big questions.” Since mankind first appeared on Earth, people have tried to understand what humanity is, why mankind exists and if there is a meaning and purpose for human life.

As in Mr. Lee’s case, the concrete answers to these abstract questions have mystified the vast majority of people. But the answers are available in a book that, somewhat ironically, need never be stolen or even bought, because it is absolutely free (Matthew 10:8). With remarkable clarity and detail, the landmark classic Mystery of the Ages answers those questions which all the sociology, poetry, history and philosophy books in the world cannot explain.

If you are reading, Mr. Lee, just click here and we will mail you (or anyone else) a free copy—no charge, no follow-up, no obligation and no risk of arrest.