Dear Mary: how do I stop guests sitting on my newly plumped sofas?

Q. We have recently installed security cameras in our remote holiday house in the south of France and I was surprised to be alerted to an intruder in the garden who was easily identifiable as our young female neighbour who owns a farm across the road. She was, armed with a plastic bag, helping herself to walnuts from a tree in the garden. I watched a little affronted because she had never asked permission, and decided to activate the alarm. She ran off and vaulted the wooden gates at the front of the property and ran straight across the road to her home. Later on, we heard that she has been telling neighbours that our alarm seems to be faulty. We would be delighted, if asked, to allow her to take the walnuts and any ripe fruit when we are not able to go during autumn, rather than letting them go to waste, but wonder now how we can ever broach the subject with her.