There's an old journalistic adage: if a story sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn't.

Now, thanks to the the US television network NBC and its "crack team at the White House", one of this week's greatest mysteries - did President Bush really have his watch stolen during a walkabout in Albania? - appears to have been solved.

He did not. As the White House insisted all along, he took it off his wrist and put it safely in his pocket.

Hundreds of thousands of people yesterday watched a YouTube video from an Albanian TV station in which it appears that the presidential watch, a $50 Timex inscribed "George W Bush President January 20,2001", is lifted from the presidential wrist during a chaotic walkabout in the town of Fushë Krujë.

The moral of the story was clear: even the world's most powerful man needs to keep an eye on his belongings.

White House aides denied that any theft had happened. "Was the President's watch lifted? No it was not," said Tony Snow, the White House press spokesman. "The President put it in his pocket and it returned safely home."

An NBC news report, also reposted on YouTube, backs them up, showing that Mr Bush is no mug traveller after all. From a different angle, he can clearly be seen bringing his left arm down and appears deftly to remove his own watch.

Perhaps he was frightened that it might get stolen.

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