An error by a shop on the Orkney island of Sanday has left it with 720 Easter eggs in the store – far more than its entire population.

Sinclair General Stores needed to order 80 eggs, but instead accidentally ordered 80 cases of nine, giving it a total of 720 for the 500-strong population.

The shop’s owner Dan Dafydd described his initial “embarrassment and shame” when he realised how many eggs had arrived.

“The rest of the staff were chuckling and finding it very entertaining,” he added.

In the spirit of Willy Wonka, he is now running a competition to let one person win 100 of the spare eggs – all in aid of charity.

He said: “I don’t think conventional means is going to get rid of them.

“We’ve been thinking outside the box a little bit. We’re doing a ‘guess the number’ square to win 100 Easter eggs.”

Squares are being sold for £1 each, with the proceeds going to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The competition is also open to people living outside the island of Sanday.

Dafydd added: “If you won them you’d probably just give them all away, but a couple of customers were pretty set on the idea of trying to eat all 100.”

In a statement, the RNLI thanked the shop for the efforts to raise money for the organisation.

It said: “We’re eggstremely grateful to Dan Ap Dafydd at Sinclair General Stores in Sanday for this incredibly generous gesture after a rather unfortunate delivery of 720 chocolate eggs! Thank you.”

The RNLI is the largest of the lifeboat services in the UK, Irish and Channel Island coastlines; it is funded mostly by donations, and is primarily run by volunteers. Orkney has three all-weather lifeboat stations.

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