Study all day long, swoop on passers-by in night.

Another formula: Work as waiters with caterers and loot motorcycles when guests are busy partying late in the night.

Both of these worked till five of the student-turned-criminals were picked up on Tuesday.

Patna senior superintendent of police Jitender Rana said all the five, in their early 20s, were students trying to crack different competitive examinations. He added that the youths, particularly active in the Kankerbagh, Patrakar Nagar and Jakkanpur police station areas, used to get out early in the morning and during the late evening hours and target less-affluent persons so that they could remain out of the clutches.

'The police have succeeded in arresting five of the gang. They have been identified as Rikky Kumar, Ajit Kumar, Ayush Kumar, Sonu Mishra and Nitish Kumar. All of them are between 20 and 25 years and Sonu is the gang leader. They were involved in many incidents of motorbike thefts, loots and snatchings in different areas and had turned out to be a headache for us,' Rana said.

While Ayush and Nitish are from Punpun, Rikky, Ajit and Sonu are from Sitamarhi, Nalanda and Bettiah, respectively.

'Ayush and Nitish are cousins living in a rented house at the Ram Krishna Nagar police station area. The other three used to live together on rent at the Patrakar Nagar area. After their arrest, the police raided theirs rooms to find many academic books and thus came to know that they are mainly students. When we questioned them, many interesting things came to the fore. In fact, they were desperate to crack the competitive examinations and started committing crime to ensure that they were self-reliant and not a burden on their parents. Soon, it became a habit for them,' a police officer, who was part of the investigating team, said.