British Baker leaves no stone unturned in its quest for bakery enlightenment, which makes it all the more edifying to discover that heavenly powers now may be choosing bakery products as their vessel.

It was with great pleasure - and no small measure of piety - that we followed the progress of an item posted on New Zealand auction site [http://www.trademe.co.nz] entitled: "Jesus Christ Pitta Bread". And subtitled: "The tasty messiah". Our intrepid salesman described the item thus: "Hungry one morning last week, I decided to heat up some pitta bread. I broke it into little bits and left it in the oven for about two-and-a-half minutes.

"After the pieces began to blacken, I took them out. Oddly enough, one piece looked like the ’face’ of Jesus. I was tempted to eat it but for some reason I didn’t."

Such self-denial of temptation is, you would agree, a credit to this devout dealer. But wait, the story does not end there! He continued: "Instead, I left it in the pantry until today, when I finally decided that I might as well auction it off."

And the burning question you surely want answered about such a faithful flatbread...? "I guess what you all want to know is whether it’s a coincidence or a real apparition. I’m not really sure."

Damn it, some questions, we suppose, are never meant to be answered. "All the same," continues the dealer, "whether you’re a Christian or just curious, happy bidding!"

The auction ended last week with the hammer going down on a saintly NZD$215 (£83) to one blessed pitta punter. Let’s hope the money went to charity.