Some villagers in Indonesia recently found themselves caring for an inflatable sex toy, which they believed to be a fallen angel. 

The timing was a little bit odd. A villager had found the toy on a beach while fishing, a day after a solar eclipse, which, Agence France-Presse reports, carries weighty spiritual meaning for many in the majority Muslim country.

Locals on the remote Banggai islands thought the events could be connected, and so took in the sex toy as one of their own, clothed it, and gave it a chair, according to AFP. 

News of the heavenly gift, as it were, spread quickly and police, worried about unrest, went to investigate, eventually confiscating the sex toy. 

Police blamed the remoteness of the islands for the episode, saying that the village is without internet and villagers have little idea about all the objects people use these days for sexual pleasure. 

But can we be sure? Maybe they did know; maybe they didn’t. Perhaps the religious meaning of sex toys should be a private decision, taken on one’s own, after having given it some thought.