A store clerk thwarted a would-be robber with a rather uncommon weapon - good manners.

"That's the first time I've ever come across something like that," RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said.

A masked man walked into the Needs convenience store on Cobequid Road in Lower Sackville at about 7:25 p.m. Tuesday.

He demanded money and cigarettes, but the male clerk refused and asked the culprit to "please leave the store," RCMP said.

The masked man stopped, looked at the store clerk and said: "You're the first person to ask me to leave in such a nice way (and) because of that I will leave."

RCMP don't usually release the exact words used during a crime, but this case was exceptional, Cpl. Taplin said.

"The clerk did everything right, didn't confront him or anything, just asked him to leave," Cpl. Taplin said. "He (the suspect) decided that the clerk was polite to him and he left without money" or anything else.

The suspect, described as a white man, about 17 years old, wearing a white bandana on his face, a navy blue top and dark jeans, was last seen heading on foot towards Sackville Drive.

Officers arrived on the scene within a few minutes, and a police dog team was called in but lost the track, Cpl. Taplin said.