This is the moment a smoker stole a bong from a cannabis shop in Thailand.

The scooter rider wearing a helmet pulled up to a cannabis dispensary along Jomtien Beach in Chonburi province pretending to be a customer on August 6 evening.

However, seeing the staff preoccupied, he surreptitiously plucked a bong sitting on a display shelf and fled the scene on his motorcycle.

CCTV footage shows the suspect carefully sliding the glass door open and lurking near the entrance. When he saw the employee hadn't noticed his presence, he tiptoed toward the shelf and grabbed one of the bongs before escaping.

The employee, Jarutach Thongsalab, 28, said: 'The suspect was a Thai man with a plump build, wearing a black shirt, brown pants, a motorcycle helmet, and carrying a bag. He stole a glass bong worth 1,800 baht (40 GBP).

'I think he may have been targetting our shop. I checked the CCTV outside and saw him driving by several times before the incident.'

He added that he was not familiar with the man as he was not a previous customer.

A complaint has been filed with the Pattaya City Police Station, and the CCTV footage has been submitted as evidence.

Thailand saw a surge of neon-lit cannabis dispensaries after the substance was decriminalised in June 2022 during former army general Prayut Chan-o-cha's leadership, with impoverished farmers hoping it would become a new cash crop.

However, government officials are now furiously backpedalling amid an explosion in mental health complaints and gaudy shops that have attracted an even lower class of holidaymakers than the country's infamous sex tourists - stoners.

Officials will now outlaw recreational cannabis, blaming poorly regulated use for allegedly fuelling drug abuse.