A MAN who stole two human toes in New Zealand before bragging about it on social media has escaped a conviction.

Joshua Williams was arrested after plucking the middle and index digits from the preserved body of a woman being displayed at a paid exhibition in Auckland.

But while the 28-year-old admitted to interfering with human remains, he walked away without a punishment from the Wellington District Court on Wednesday, with the presiding judge saying he didn't want to leave Williams with a conviction that evoked imagery of a looming "grave-robber with a shovel".

"The stigma would be out of all proportion," Judge Bill Hastings said.

He also dropped a theft charge against Williams, saying the objects had to either be property or a body.

"Excuse the pun, but you have been toe-tally overcharged," the judge declared, spurring murmurs through the courtroom.

Williams in May visited the travelling Body Worlds exhibition - which features bodies dissected and preserved through plastination - when he suddenly decided to pocket the digits from an unguarded foot, the court heard.

Afterwards, he posted a photo with one online, prosecutors said.

"Chur to the Body Worlds festival. I stole a toe from an uncovered display lol," Williams wrote on Instagram.

"I saw them so I took them. Sorry," he told police officers later.

The toes, estimated by their owners to be worth about $NZ5500 ($A5043), have since been reattached. Williams has apologised.