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It's one of life's guilty pleasures.  A heaping stack of hotcakes smothered in butter and warm maple syrup.

That syrup is an expensive commodity...and is apparently a target of thieves, which some folks in Canada are finding out the hard way.

Our neighbors to the north love maple syrup so much they actually have a strategic stockpile of the stuff.  And someone has apparently lifted about 10-million pounds of the stuff...valued "on the street" at up to $30-million.

The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which is responsible for the global strategic maple syrup reserve, (yes...that does actually exist), had hoped for some quick crime solving wizardry...but had no luck.

Anne-Marie Granger Godbout, executive director of the federation, told The Globe and Mail they are still trying to figure out just how much is missing. But a spokesman from the Sureté du Québec said the loss was significant.

“We know that it’s millions of dollars that was stolen,” Sergeant Richard Gagné told the paper.  “It’s a very large amount.”

The stockpile is actually insured...so those that produced the syrup won't be facing a financial loss.

“Obviously those people stole the maple syrup to sell it somewhere,” Godbout said in the interview. “If it’s a big volume, it could be very harmful for the maple syrup industry. The companies that are working in this industry will have to compete with some company that didn’t pay for the maple syrup.”

But worries for a global jump in maple syrup prices isn't something to really worry about...as the amount stolen, though large, is only a small percentage of the global supply.

Quebec produces between 70 and 80 per cent of the world’s maple syrup, with the bulk of export sales taking place in the United States, according to the federation.

This story is too fun!  Would you buy a 55 gallon drum of Black Market maple syrup if you had the chance???  What would you do with that much of the sweet, sticky stuff?