Just steps from the site of a brazen cookie theft, we hear tell of another strange and dastardly crime — but this time, a box of books was the target.

Yes, books, the items you can see dumped on many an SF street corner as their owners discard them in favor of a more minimal lifestyle. An odd choice for a mugging, but that's what happened at Market and Seventh Streets Wednesday morning, KRON4 and Bay City News report.

It all went down "just after 4:20 a.m.," which, ha ha, I know. A 62-year-old man was standing at Mission and Seventh Streets — also the site of a mugging over cookies on Friday — box of books at his side, when two men in their mid-30s approached.

One of the men snatched up the box of books, punching the books' owner in the face as he did so. Both suspects fled, books in hand. They haven't been seen since.

The punch split the victim's eyebrow, and he was transported to the hospital to treatment. Here's hoping he's recovering well, and has since found something else to read.

Previously: Cookie Bandits Menace Mission Street