You can’t make this stuff up. The butler did it.

Pope Benedict XVI’s trusted butler was busted yesterday by Vatican police for allegedly stealing the pontiff’s personal papers and sparking a five-month scandal that embarrassed the Holy See.

Paolo Gabriele, 40, was caught red-handed — with secret Vatican documents — when he arrived for work at the papal apartments near St. Peter’s Basilica, Italian media reported.

His arrest comes a month after Benedict appointed a special commission of three senior cardinals to find who has been leaking Holy See secrets — including letters to the pope about alleged Vatican corruption and power struggles.

Benedict was described as shocked and saddened by the scandal, dubbed “Vatileaks.”

Gabriele, known as Paoletto (Little Paul), has been the lay person closest to Benedict for six years.