Stuart Parker, manager of the Broadfield Arms on Leyland Lane, said he was 'horrified' to discover that the Royal National Lifeboat Institution cash tin had been taken.

So after having his offer to replace the cash from his own wallet rebuffed by the Leyland RNLI branch secretary Peter Ball, Stuart held a charity night.

He said: "My obvious reaction was 'how low can you get?'. I was out that day and it was the only charity box not chained up.

"I felt absolutely awful about it so at Wednesday's karaoke night I donated some wine as raffles prizes and the winners redonated the prizes for an auction.

"We managed to raise £132 so it's a happy ending to a sad story - every cloud has a silver lining.

"For someone to pinch the collection box is despicable, we think it was two local people who are not regulars. We reported it to the police but I've got to say it is a sad state of affairs when we've got to chain a charity box to the bar.

"The new one is chained like the rest of them now and it proves that people will steal anything they can get their hands on in this day and age."

Peter Ball said: "This is the meanest thing someone could do and I condemn that sort of behaviour. The collection box has been in the pub for two years and now I have had to replace it with the only fastened down box.

"I was at the pub on a Tuesday and went to put some change in it but it wasn't there.

"When I asked the staff they said it must have been stolen that afternoon as they had two people in that they didn't know so they reported it to the police.

"The landlord went straight to his wallet but I refused and suggested a charity evening which he agreed was a great idea.

"Two days later the pub had a raffle and a collection and raised £132. We usually get around £10 to £15 pounds each time we collect it, which is usually once a month.

"It is an incredible turnaround from such a mean act."