DICKINSON (AP) - The $25 money order arrived at City Hall, along with an unsigned, typewritten note asking for forgiveness.

"I took a figurine (cost about $3.00) from a store in Dickinson," the writer said, and went on to describe the store as one "on the north side of Main Street," that sold drugs and other things.

"Please forgive me," the note said. "Put this money in your town's welfare fund."

City Administrator Greg Sund was puzzled.

The city has no "Main Street." It has a Main Avenue, but it runs north-south, with no north side. And the city has no welfare fund, Sund said.

The City Commission decided to donate the money to the United Way of America.

Dickinson Postmaster Gerard Bercier said the money order had no name on it and the envelope had no return address, though the ZIP code on the money order indicated it was purchased in Bismarck.

After reading the note, Bercier suggested the drug store mentioned could be Greene Drug, on the north side of Villard, a major street in Dickinson. The store's owner, Dwight Mundy, said it has sold figurines.

"I think it's amazing what a conscience can do and how long it stays around," Mundy said.

The city had two other drug stores on the north side of Villard, said Lloyd Schnaidt, who at one time owned Service Drug. It was open from 1901 to 1987, he said.

"It was probably our store, because our store had a gift shop that had figurines and stuff like that," Schnaidt said. "If he stole a figurine for $3, it probably wasn't yesterday.

"You've got to figure that guilt complex had been with the person for a long time."