It turns out that the best way to see off an armed robber might be to laugh in their face.

That’s what happened at a bar in Malaga when a man burst in wielding a machete.

Waiters at La Barraca de la Abuela reacted calmly with one grabbing the weapon and joking with the thief that it was a fake.

The would-be robber shouted ‘give me the money now’,but believing him to be a regular customer they laughed at him and ignored his demands.

One asked him through laughter: ‘The money now? Should we call the police?’

CCTV shows him pulling out a gun and banging it on the counter,demanding they take him seriously.

What a helmet: The machete mugger was laughed out of the bar(Picture: Solarpix)

Even when he held the knife to a worker’s neck they failed to grasp the danger. One waiter smiled and told him he thought the blade was clearly ‘nicked’.

Eventually,the armed man left confused and empty-handed.

It was only after hearing that he had struck at several other bars in the Las Lagunas part of the city that they realised it was the real deal.

One of the workers said: ‘When he came to the bar the customer and my colleague thought it was a joke and they laughed at him not knowing he was really intending to rob them.