Tauranga residents are being warned against handing over change to the girl pictured below after a collection bucket was stolen from the Central City Backpackers today.

The bucket contained less than $15 donated to the Nepal earthquake relief effort when it was stolen by the female, whose actions were caught on a CCTV camera.

The public are being warned not to give any money to this girl after a collection bucket for the victims of the Nepal earthquake was stolen. Photo: Supplied CCTV.

However, the worry for backpackers' owner Darryl Herbert is she will try and use the bucket to con people into giving her more money.

After the bucket was taken, Darryl checked the Willow Street area and the surrounding neighbourhood, but could not find a discarded bucket anywhere.

'It's not the flashest donation bucket,” says Darryl.

'Of all the boys here, about a dozen of them are Nepalese students. They just made these buckets up themselves straight away.

'They ran up a label, put it through the plastic machine and stuck it on the bucket.”

He's advising anyone approached for donations by this girl not to give them any money and to ask them where they got the collection bucket from.

'As you can imagine, for the young Nepalese guys, it's added insult to injury,” says Darryl.

'I think there's a high chance this girl has been walking around today falsely collecting funds because it is a sign-written bucket.”

The backpackers' English language students had a meeting today with the Nepalese Association in Te Puke and they will be joining forces to co-ordinate more fund raising.

New white plastic buckets will feature lids and improved printing.