Retired Christian bookstore owner Bob Walsh got a heavenly surprise when he opened his mail – a wad of 20 $100 bills and a note reading, “This is money for the items I stole from your store many years ago. I’m very sorry.”

Walsh, of Oak Park., Ill., suffered a rash of Bible thefts before giving up the business in 2001.

“Maybe someone who stole one of those Bibles actually read it,” he said.

Don’t get caught reading Page Six in the tiny Colombian town of Icononzo – officials there have made gossip a crime punishable by up to four years in jail.

Mayor Jesus Ignacio Jimenez says in a country as violent as Colombia, gossip can have serious consequences.

“People are going to jail or being murdered due to gossip,” he said.

So far, nobody’s been arrested, but Jimenez insists it’s only a matter of time.

“They just haven’t yet been caught,” he said.

A 9-year-old boy used the warmth of his own body to hatch 13 chicks in China.

Wang Peng bought 20 eggs with his savings and planned to have the family’s hen hatch them – until a neighbor’s dog attacked and killed the bird.

“I had to sleep under really thick quilts, and dared not to turn over for fear of crushing the eggs,” he said.

After 20 days, the lucky 13 hatched, all healthy and chirping away.

The late Pope John Paul II has become a top pop star in his homeland.

A collection of the beloved pontiff’s poetry, backed by a disco beat, is currently No. 3 on the Polish charts.

A minister has been called in to get rid of a ghost obsessed by footwear.

Workers at a fashion shop in Padstow, England, say the spirit keeps moving one specific pair of shoes on a display shelf, sometimes knocking them to the floor.

Enter Father Chris Malkinson, who prayed and sprinkled holy water.

“Sometimes, there is evidence of a soul trapped between this world and the next. I am sure it will disappear over time,” he said.

Hmm, maybe it’s a “sole” that’s trapped.