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Theft   Listen
noun
Theft  n.  
1.
(Law) The act of stealing; specifically, the felonious taking and removing of personal property, with an intent to deprive the rightful owner of the same; larceny. Note: To constitute theft there must be a taking without the owner's consent, and it must be unlawful or felonious; every part of the property stolen must be removed, however slightly, from its former position; and it must be, at least momentarily, in the complete possession of the thief. See Larceny, and the Note under Robbery.
2.
The thing stolen. (R.) "If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive,... he shall restore double."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Theft" Quotes from Famous Books



... vsed? It is writon that he hathe the sworde to punishe euill thinges and vices. If it be his part to punishe theues / and not to permitt them / the same must he do to Idolatrours. Or ells we must saie that Idolatrie is no such synne and vice as theft is / or that with other vices it is not to be punished. And that theis princes maye do this the better / they muste them selues take hede that they be cleare from these Idolatries and supersticions. Augustine writing againste the donatistes dothe in manye places ...
— A Treatise of the Cohabitation Of the Faithful with the Unfaithful • Peter Martyr

... sank into a chair and assuming a becoming air of dignity, that is, leaning on his cutlass and fixing his eyes on the floor, he began to speak about the theft. But ...
— Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... told his mother of the theft, While she, of principle bereft, Patted him on the head and smil'd. And said, "You are my own ...
— Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 • Edward William Cole

... necessary to form a navy of unparalleled power, appears in clearest light, giving us cause for much congratulation. To effect all this, time is required. Let those who fret, look over the map of a hemisphere—let them reflect on the condition to which Southern perfidy and theft had reduced us ere the war begun, and then let them moderate their cries. It will all be done; but the programme is a tremendous one, and the future of the most glorious country on earth requires that it shall be done thoroughly, and that no ...
— Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 • Various

... lifted and opened, was found to contain two hundred or more dollars in old bills, which, if not the full hoard of their industrious owner, was certainly worth the taking by one who had risked his neck for the sole purpose of theft. ...
— The Golden Slipper • Anna Katharine Green

... bull, and a rage ungovernable had surged upon him. Then cold reason had come. He was caught—there was no question about that—she had taken pains to show him that he need make no mistake there. Innocent enough in his own conscience, as far as actual theft went, for the pearls would in due course be restored in some way to the possession of their owner, he would have been unable to make even his own father, who was alive then, believe in his innocence, let alone a jury of his peers. ...
— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard

... guessed he would go. She had not noticed that he took anything away with him. In his despair the old man turned to his old friend Flechter, and the next day the dealer came to express his sympathy. He urged Bott to notify the police of the theft, but the old man was prostrated with grief, and it was the wife who, with Ellen Clancy, finally accompanied Flechter to Police Headquarters. The police had no idea who had taken the old fellow's fiddle, and did not particularly ...
— True Stories of Crime From the District Attorney's Office • Arthur Train

... vulgar mansion another was displaying himself, seated on the same seats, eating at the same table, sleeping in the same bed and giving his orders to the same servants. He experienced a strange sensation, as of a theft, of some undue influence, of suffering an ejectment by a stranger from some personal property, and this Granet, the man sent there as he had been, by a vote, seemed to him to be a smart fellow, a ...
— His Excellency the Minister • Jules Claretie

... indeed, if I mistake not (he proceeded), both those legislators enacted many of their laws expressly with a view to teaching this branch of justice. [4] It is written, "Let a man be punished for a deed of theft"; "Let whosoever is detected in the act be bound and thrown in prison"; "If he offer violence, [5] let him be put to death." It is clear that the intention of the lawgivers in framing these enactments was to render the sordid love of gain [6] devoid ...
— The Economist • Xenophon

... no small sign of wisdom to talk much; his tongue therefore goes continually his errand, but never speeds. If his understanding were not honester than his will, no man should keep good conceit by him, for he thinks it no theft to sell all he can to opinion. His pedigree and his father's seal-ring are the stilts of his crazed disposition. He had rather keep company with the dregs of men than not to be the best man. His insinuation is the inviting ...
— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various

... direction of the doctor's lonely residence. The neighbours saw him as he passed them like the wind; they wondered, and they shook their heads. Mynheer Poots was not more than half way to his home for he had hurt his ankle. Apprehensive of what might possibly take place, should his theft be discovered, he occasionally looked behind him; at length, to his horror, he beheld Philip Vanderdecken at a distance, bounding on in pursuit of him. Frightened almost out of his senses, the wretched pilferer hardly knew how ...
— The Phantom Ship • Frederick Marryat

... contempt, hatred, ignorance of God, ingratitude towards Him, misuse of His name, neglect of His Word, etc.; and sins against the second table, dishonor of parents, disobedience of government, coveting of another's possessions, etc. Granted that I have not committed murder, adultery, theft, and similar sins in deed, nevertheless I have committed them in the heart, and therefore I am a transgressor of all the ...
— Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians • Martin Luther

... we were entertained by him with such a comedy, or dramatic heava, as is generally acted in these isles. The music consisted of three drums, the actors were seven men, and one woman, the chief's daughter. The only entertaining part in the drama, was a theft committed by a man and his accomplice, in such a masterly manner, as sufficiently displayed the genius of the people in this vice. The theft is discovered before the thief has time to carry off his prize; then a scuffle ensues with those set to guard it, ...
— A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, Volume 1 • James Cook

... essence of all conceivable wickedness. Theft, robbery, pollution, unbridled passion, incest, cruelty, cold-blooded murder, blasphemy, and defiance of the laws of God. It teaches children to disregard parental authority. It tears down the marriage altar, and tramples its sacred ashes under its feet. It ...
— Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence - The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of - Slavery to the Present Time • Various

... refused. She had humbled herself for naught. That was the very tar of shame. Peter knew that in the moral categories of Niggertown Cissie would suffer more from such a rebuff than if she had lied or committed theft and adultery every day in the calendar. She had been refused marriage. All the folk-ways of Niggertown were utterly topsyturvy. It was a crazy-house filled with the ...
— Birthright - A Novel • T.S. Stribling

... bore him Shine glad with hidden tears. Why question of his ease of who before him, In one place or another where they left Their names as far behind them as their bones, And yet by dint of slaughter toil and theft, And shrewdly sharpened stones, Carved hard the way for his ascendency Through deserts of lost years? Why trouble him now who sees and hears No more than what his innocence requires, And therefore to no other height aspires Than one at which he neither quails nor tires? ...
— The Man Against the Sky • Edwin Arlington Robinson

... of the vault Scattergood removed his shoes and sat on a pile of bagged silver. His pudgy toes worked busily while he reflected upon the sum of three thousand dollars and what the theft of that amount might indicate. "Looked big to Ovid," he said to himself. Then, "Jest a ...
— Scattergood Baines • Clarence Budington Kelland

... conclude that one of the panniers must have contained sweets, and the other only grain." Upon hearing the above, the sultan said to the complainant, "Friend, go and look for thy camel, for these observations do not prove the theft on the accused, but only the strength of ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 4 • Anon.

... At the request of his wife I dined at their house with twenty-five young culprits, whom J.S. has in his Reformatory at Stoke, near Bromsgrove. They came in a van with horses to spend the day. They are all such as have been once or twice in prison, mostly for theft. I addressed them after dinner, and at tea-time I questioned them as to Jesus Christ our Redeemer, on God, Heaven and Hell, how to gain Heaven and avoid misery. I left them with a more favorable impression ...
— Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel • John Yeardley

... gone outside and now brought the four horses nearer the door. This they did that they might have as little to do with the robbery as possible, and they had so managed it that Jim and Dan had done the actual theft. ...
— Jim Cummings • Frank Pinkerton

... them in this case," remarked Judge Graney, who had stepped down beside the two men. "The governor's instructions were that they should be used merely as an instrument in enforcing the court's order regarding the sale of Dunlavey's cattle. The theft of the Circle Bar cattle is a matter which comes directly under the jurisdiction of the sheriff. If he ...
— The Coming of the Law • Charles Alden Seltzer

... enough alone. But darkest and deepest of all, darker and deeper than the past shame of being suspected by him she loved, was the shame of suspecting her own mother—of believing herself, as she did, privy to that shameful theft, and yet unable to make restitution. There was the horror of all horrors, the close prison which seemed to stifle her whole soul. The only chink through which a breath of air seemed to come, and keep her heart alive, was the hope that somehow, somewhere, ...
— Two Years Ago, Volume II. • Charles Kingsley

... drawing a small parcel from his pocket, "something which was found by my employer's negro, in cleaning up the bow-window, the morning after the theft. He supposed it belonged to the burglars, and gave it me previous to his death, begging me to keep it, unless some one were arrested, whose property it might prove to be. I have not opened it, or looked upon it, and do not know even ...
— The Brother Clerks - A Tale of New-Orleans • Xariffa

... to her, Mr. Baron said to his overseer, "Aun' Jinkey must know about this rascally flight and theft. Bring her here." ...
— Miss Lou • E. P. Roe

... Hill. The housekeeper was entirely ignorant of Conrad's theft, and answered that she had ...
— The Store Boy • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... Landon and Chester Haynes should be concerned for the safety of the motor launch Deerfoot. It had been stolen from them once in simple wantonness by two young men who had nothing to do with the post office robberies. The motive for a similar theft was now much stronger. It was evident that the criminals had come to Beartown, or as near to it as they could come, by water, and their boat was somewhere in the neighborhood. They were likely to discover the Deerfoot, ...
— The Launch Boys' Adventures in Northern Waters • Edward S. Ellis

... when you have got an extra note or two in your pocket-book. For the present, all you need know, you do know. There isn't the shadow of a doubt that this fascinating lady has the double slur on her of having been found guilty of murder, and of having served her term of imprisonment for theft. There's your money's worth for your money—with the whole of my wonderful knack at stating a case clearly, thrown in for nothing. If you have any gratitude in you, you ought to do something handsome, one of these days, for your son. ...
— Armadale • Wilkie Collins

... she returned to her home and lived with her mother, assisting her with washing and ironing, following which she led the life of a prostitute for about two years. In 1901 she was sentenced to thirty months imprisonment at Moundsville, Virginia, for theft. Previous to this she had been confined in the Government Hospital for the Insane for about a month with an attack of delirium tremens. After the expiration of her sentence at Moundsville, she returned to Washington and soon after was again arrested ...
— Studies in Forensic Psychiatry • Bernard Glueck

... soul that sins. When in our intentions we purpose to sin, we are guilty of sin before God. He that searches the heart, who looks not as man looks, who sees the secret motive, he knows when the will consents to do evil. Not a theft was ever committed, except that there was a will to steal; not an act of dishonesty, except that there was a will to deceive; not a lie was ever uttered, except there was a will to lie. It is our souls that must be ...
— Around Old Bethany • Robert Lee Berry

... care than did Kent protect the relics of good Duke Humphrey. His veneration for all that the abbey contained was remarkable. A story is told of a gentleman who purloined a bone of the Duke. The clerk suspected the theft but could never prove it, though he sometimes taxed the gentleman with having removed the bone. At last, just before his death, the man restored it, saying to the clerk, "I could not depart easy with ...
— The Parish Clerk (1907) • Peter Hampson Ditchfield

... morning that nothing was missing except the servants' watches, their few small trinkets that were lying on the dressing-table, and Mary's rings. The extraordinary silence with which he had perpetrated the theft, his skill in taking the rings off Mary's hand as it lay outside the coverlet, were not at all unprecedented—the natives were known to be silent and subtle as snakes ...
— Queensland Cousins • Eleanor Luisa Haverfield

... pocketbook was restored; everything save the miniature. This he kept, yet all the while feeling keenly that he was guilty of a theft. Yet in this he did not feel that God was offended. And often as he gazed at his little 'guardian angel,' as he called ...
— The Rector of St. Mark's • Mary J. Holmes

... he expected that brandy would ease his embarrassment. At last, sodden with drink, he enlisted in the Guards, from which regiment he deserted, only to be pressed aboard a man-of-war. Freed by a clever trick, he took to the road again, until a paltry theft from a barber transported him to Maryland. There he turned sailor, and his ship, The Two Sisters, being taken by a privateer, he contrived to scramble into Portugal, whence he made his way back to England, and to the only adventure of which he was master. ...
— A Book of Scoundrels • Charles Whibley

... wholly personal, the new ethics (still unwritten) is social first—personal later. In the old list we find, on a par with adultery, theft and murder, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Does this mean common swearing? Is it as wrong to say ...
— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

... up at the theft of the boat and he ran to saddle Manitou. But Sewall restrained him, pointing out that if the country was impassable for the horses of the thieves, it was no less impassable for the horses of the pursuers. He declared that he and Dow could build a flat-bottomed ...
— Roosevelt in the Bad Lands • Hermann Hagedorn

... certain reasons which will be given in due time, did far greater injury to Les Aigues than to the estates of Ronquerolles or Soulanges. You must not, however, fancy that Tonsard, his wife and children, and his old mother ever deliberately said to themselves, "We will live by theft, and commit it as cleverly as we can." Such habits grow slowly. To the dried sticks they added, in the first instance, a single bit of good wood; then, emboldened by habit and a carefully prepared immunity (necessary to plans ...
— Sons of the Soil • Honore de Balzac

... them are light as the souls of birds;—and the swaying of the sleeves of the maidens at play seems a flutter of wide, soft wings. In Horai nothing is hidden but grief, because there is no reason for shame;—and nothing is locked away, because there could not be any theft;—and by night as well as by day all doors remain unbarred, because there is no reason for fear. And because the people are fairies—though mortal—all things in Horai, except the Palace of the Dragon-King, are small ...
— Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things • Lafcadio Hearn

... precepts of Jesus and to repeat in new forms the spirit of the primitive Church. The Christian sense of stewardship, not the abolition of the right of property, is the cure for the hideous facts which drive men to shriek 'Property is theft.' ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts • Alexander Maclaren

... did not take it, but for some time the theft remained quite a mystery, until Joe solved the secret. From then on he and Reggie were good friends, and Reggie's sister Mabel ...
— Baseball Joe in the Big League - or, A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggles • Lester Chadwick

... the negroes bolted in the opposite direction. I paused from my flight a moment to grab at the all kinds of money on the floor. This wasn't theft: it was merely custom. Every man who hadn't run was grabbing. The doors crashed open and swung in, and through them surged a squad of bulls. We surged the other way. It was dark in the office, and the narrow door would not permit ...
— The Road • Jack London

... not trouble to tell you my motive, except that it is for your good. All I want to ask is, whether this meeting is aware that three members of the new Club are at this moment under the eyes of the police, for a disgraceful act of theft committed in the town; and, if so, whether you think that fact increases their claims to become members of a Club which is to be a credit ...
— Follow My leader - The Boys of Templeton • Talbot Baines Reed

... been traced eventually to a certain department, that in which Mary worked. The detective was alert. Some valuable silks were missed. Search followed immediately. The goods were found in Mary's locker. That was enough. She was charged with the theft. She protested innocence—only to be laughed at in derision by her accusers. Every thief declares innocence. Mr. Gilder himself was emphatic against her. The thieving had been long continued. An example must be ...
— Within the Law - From the Play of Bayard Veiller • Marvin Dana

... line of fire. Mr. Layard asserts that when Keene made the drawing he thought the joke "a mighty poor one;" and he might have added, as is made clear in the chapter dealing with "Plagiarism," not even a new one, for Punch himself had used the idea before (p. 166, Vol. XV.), and was then accused of theft by the "Man in ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann

... secure the influence of the manager of a certain noble's estate in behalf of his friend Gavryl; also that the school-teacher was writing a petition to the Czar himself against Ivan, explaining in detail his theft of the perchbolt and partial destruction of Gavryl's garden—declaring that half of Ivan's land was to be ...
— The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories • Leo Tolstoy

... have any intention of robbing anyone when he asked for lodging? Was Valjean accountable for the theft? Discuss fully. ...
— Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year • E.C. Hartwell

... thus like a small miser counting her money, a hand swooped suddenly down upon the heap of coppers and swept them away. Betty looked up to scream, but it was only John. And he warned her solemnly how easily such a dreadful theft could be committed. ...
— An Australian Lassie • Lilian Turner

... such as I have," said Mrs. Carter, feeling a little remorse for her husband's theft, and pity for what ...
— The Young Explorer • Horatio Alger

... Church on this question was clearly stated by Pope Celestine III in 1192. If a clerk had been lawfully convicted of theft, homicide, perjury, or any capital crime, he should be degraded by the ecclesiastical judge; for the next offence he should be punished by excommunication, and for the next by anathema; then, since the Church ...
— The Church and the Empire - Being an Outline of the History of the Church - from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304 • D. J. Medley

... hung, had vanished. The Nitrian monks had come down in a body, and carried them off before the very eyes of the sentinels. Orestes knew well enough that the fellows must have been bribed to allow the theft; but he dare not say so to men on whose good humour his very life might depend; so, stomaching the affront as best he could, he vowed fresh vengeance against Cyril, and went on his way. But, behold!—within four-and-twenty hours ...
— Hypatia - or, New Foes with an Old Face • Charles Kingsley

... down for his money, and it was loaded into the wagon, the two soldiers immediately deserted, which, of course, excited the suspicions of the officers. A courier was at once dispatched to the agency to see if the money was all right, and the theft was soon discovered. The superintendent, who was then Major Cullen, had handbills struck off, giving the description of the deserters, and offering $600 for their capture and the return of the money. Couriers ...
— The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier • Charles E. Flandrau

... This first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It marked his adaptability, his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which would have meant swift and terrible death. It marked, further, the decay or going to pieces of his ...
— The Call of the Wild • Jack London

... invariably, he would be a man I couldn't bring in in a thousand years. But Galloway has slipped up; he has too many Moragas and Antones and Vidals at his heels; he has been the cause, directly or indirectly, of too many killings. . . . A theft will be forgotten in time, the hue and cry die down; spilled blood cries ...
— The Bells of San Juan • Jackson Gregory

... the Highland chiefs charged and made answerable for good rule in the North on the 28th of June of that year and to find caution within fifteen days, under pain of rebellion, not to reset within their bounds any notorious thieves, rievers, fugitives, and rebels, for theft and murder, under a further penalty, in Mackenzie's case, of five ...
— History Of The Mackenzies • Alexander Mackenzie

... days before Christmas Mary noticed that one of the six skyscraper studies was gone from the studio. She spoke of it, fearing the possibility of a theft, but Stefan murmured rather vaguely that it was all right—he was having it framed. Also, on three consecutive mornings she awakened to find him busily painting at a small easel close under the window, which he would hastily cover on hearing her ...
— The Nest Builder • Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale

... about it, but Constable Plimmer felt only depression and disappointment. A stout admirer of the sex, he hated arresting women. Moreover, to a man in the mood to tackle anarchists with bombs, to be confronted with petty theft is galling. But duty was ...
— The Man with Two Left Feet - and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse

... say," continued John, as he also smiled at the reminiscence, that his views on theft were most peculiar. He did not regard it as a crime if the people stole from each other. But if they attempted to steal from him, or tried to deceive him, it was such a great crime, that the unfortunates were banished to a place called Hutoton, ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: Treasures of the Island • Roger Thompson Finlay

... the rich purchaser from Kazusa came up suddenly. There seemed no outlet but suicide—if the dreary life away from Edo was to be avoided." Shu[u]zen took her up harshly—"Bound to the Uedaya for a term of years then you would cheat your master out of the money he expended on you. This is theft, and most reprehensible. For such it is hard to find excuse." His roughness puzzled and frightened even the experience of Kogiku. She became confused. Shu[u]zen was satisfied with the impression. He was unwilling further to delay his own prospects. Sending the ...
— Bakemono Yashiki (The Haunted House) - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 2 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville

... nutshell. For the present, Andrew, my son, keep snug in the nest under the shelter of our wings; in duo time, we will take you out to fly, and that where you will not return without a prey; and the short and the long of it is, that by and by you will lick your fingers after every theft." ...
— The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... moment she longed to confide in him, to tell him the reality. What would happen? Was it possible that Ahmed would pardon her, and let her go to her own life, her own love and lover! No, it was not possible—any other offence but this; theft or murder he could have forgiven and sheltered, but this, no! Instinctively she knew and felt it would not be possible to him—a Turk, free from prejudice and superstition, liberal as he was—to forgive her crime. Death for herself and ...
— Six Women • Victoria Cross

... her uncle? Pity for him, a stranger, perhaps dying in a hotel, most inhospitable shelter to an invalid, did not enter her heart. She had seen her lover murdered without a spark of communication, and was now glad that he could never call her to account for the theft. But a vague expectation of benefiting by the pretense of affection—the desire to have some support in case of Von Sendlingen attacking—the excuse and cover her ministration at the sick-bed would afford, all these reasons united to guide her to the Hotel de l'Aigle aux ...
— The Son of Clemenceau • Alexandre (fils) Dumas

... would at once have declared their purpose. The vulture is a filthy, unclean wretch—the bird of Mars—preying upon the eyes, the hearts, the entrails of the victims of that scoundrel-mountebank, Glory; whilst the magpie is a petty-larceny vagabond, existing upon social theft. To use a vulgar phrase—and considering the magistrates we are compelled to keep company with, 'tis wonderful that we talk so purely as we do—'twould have let the cat too much out of the bag to have put the birds where we stand. Whereas, there is a fine hypocrisy about ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... the library, found the volume, opened it, took the three certificates, and found in the other volume about thirty bank notes. In spite of his brutal nature the colossus felt as though a peal of bells were ringing in each ear. The blood whistled in his temples as he committed the theft; cold as the weather was, his shirt was wet on his back; his legs gave way under him and he fell into a chair in the salon as if an axe had ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac

... crop. If anything has been stolen, in order to discover the thief, they make up a little ciri, and turning to the quarter they suspect, they throw it forward, and call out for an insect they believe will inform them. If the insect respond from that direction, the theft is charged to the tribe so pointed out; but if it does not answer, they try another quarter. I did not hear that marriages are ever forced as they are in civilised countries; but, on the contrary, the young people are left to choose those they like ...
— Mark Seaworth • William H.G. Kingston

... nature expressed or understood executed in natured nature by natural creatures in accordance with his, her and their natured natures, of dissimilar similarity. As not so calamitous as a cataclysmic annihilation of the planet in consequence of a collision with a dark sun. As less reprehensible than theft, highway robbery, cruelty to children and animals, obtaining money under false pretences, forgery, embezzlement, misappropriation of public money, betrayal of public trust, malingering, mayhem, corruption of minors, criminal libel, blackmail, contempt of court, arson, treason, felony, ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... God forgive me! If I have wronged you by suspicion and accusation of a crime which you did not commit, then my atonement shall be your triumphant vindication. I would give a good deal to know that your hands are as pure as they look, and innocent of theft and murder. Tell me—tell me the truth. I will save you, I will give you back all that you have lost, and tenfold more. For God's sake, for your own sake, and for mine, I entreat you to tell me the truth. Did you go back to 'Elm Bluff' that night, ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... bow unstrung; and on the ground With soft grass clad she rested: 'neath her neck Was plac'd the painted quiver. Jove, the maid Weary'd beheld, and from her wonted troop Far distant. "Surely now, my wife," he cries, "This theft can ne'er discover. Should she know, "What is her rage with such a prize compar'd?" Then Dian's face and form the god conceal'd; Loud calling,—"Where, O virgin, hast thou stray'd? "What hills, my comrade, hast thou crost in chase?" ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid

... flourish in their crime, the victims of a criminal inheritance. The ratio of homicides in Italy and Artena is as 9 to 61; of assault and battery as 34 to 205; of highway robbery as 3 to 145; of theft as 47 to 111. Professor Pellman, of Bonn University, has traced the careers of a large number of defectives, and shown their cost to the State. Take this example:—A woman who was a thief, a drunkard, and a tramp for forty years of her life, had 834 descendants, ...
— The Fertility of the Unfit • William Allan Chapple

... your honor that if he answers satisfactorily to that false charge of theft, the government will let ...
— The Maids of Paradise • Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

... to be scanned, Or questioned respecting her duty, When some little theft she had planned, Or seen coming home ...
— The Youth's Coronal • Hannah Flagg Gould

... have chosen a better way in which to fire her imagination. His voice in the dark, his laughing triumph, the daring theft of her fan. Her heart followed him, seeing him a Conqueror even in this, seeing him a robber with his rose-colored booty, a Robin Hood of the Garden, a ...
— The Trumpeter Swan • Temple Bailey

... be the Graue of your deseruing, Rome must know the value of her owne: 'Twere a Concealement worse then a Theft, No lesse then a Traducement, To hide your doings, and to silence that, Which to the spire, and top of prayses vouch'd, Would seeme but modest: therefore I beseech you, In signe of what you are, not to reward What you haue done, before ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... nothing more secret or valuable than the letters she had written to the King during the twenty-seven years of their romance, letters which, after reading, she consigned to the flames in her boudoir within an hour of the suspected theft ...
— Love affairs of the Courts of Europe • Thornton Hall

... the United States, facts and figures support the claim of this department that in this respect the District of Columbia occupies a distinct standing of its own. Its comprehensive moral status is above that of most communities. Were it not for the depredations chargeable to theft, there would be comparatively little crime to chronicle. This offense must always exist here, unless through some unexpected agency a complete change should be effected in the social conditions which prevail. The abiding place of a large class of idle, ...
— A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro - The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 1 • Kelly Miller

... This character was given by Pliny to the first Christians. They were to avoid fraud, theft, and adultery. They were never to deny any trust, when required to deliver it up, nor to falsify ...
— A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Clarkson

... now since old Mike Lonergan, who lived in a hovel in Moher Village, was robbed of his child. It was his wife first found out the theft, for she had seen her unborn son in a dream, and he was beautiful; so when she saw the sickly and ugly baby, she knew that he was not hers, and that the Fairies had stolen the child of her dream. Many advised her to roast ...
— The Idler, Volume III., Issue XIII., February 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly. Edited By Jerome K. Jerome & Robert Barr • Various

... her sex will excuse her pitying a man whom she saw miserable on her own account; nor can they blame her for esteeming one who visibly, from the most honourable motives, endeavoured to smother a flame in his own bosom, which, like the famous Spartan theft, was preying upon and consuming his very vitals. Thus his backwardness, his shunning her, his coldness, and his silence, were the forwardest, the most diligent, the warmest, and most eloquent advocates; and wrought so violently on her sensible and tender heart, that she soon felt for him all ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... case, laying the article on a table, then having my attention called away by some rather unusual sound in a far corner of the room, and then, on returning to the table, finding the article had vanished. There was no one else in the house, so that ordinary theft was out of the question. Yet where did these articles go, and of what use would they be to a poltergeist? On one occasion, only, I caught a glimpse of the miscreant. It was about eight o'clock on ...
— Byways of Ghost-Land • Elliott O'Donnell

... disappointed you. What shall I do with my sweetheart? Shall she be whipped for her theft? Shall she be shut in a dungeon? Shall she be thrown before elephants? Choose ...
— Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard • Eleanor Farjeon

... asserted, "is nothing of the sort. Neither am I. We are both honest men faced with a colossal situation. There is nothing personal in our treatment of you. We have no enmity towards you. You are simply a person who has committed a theft." ...
— The Devil's Paw • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... assassinated by a group of righteously irate citizens," said Judge Carter. "Which I would very warmly deserve. On the other hand, suppose we 'treated' people to feel anguish at thoughts of murder or killing, theft, treason, and other forms ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith

... nor ferocious. Death for the worst offences—among which theft is specially mentioned—confiscation of fief, and banishment, these exhaust the list. The only other punishment mentioned is that of branding on the face, inflicted on a commoner for the crime of ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... service, hired me out to other Arabs for a morsel of milk. I would certainly have sunk under this fatigue, if, from time to time, I had not found opportunity to steal some handfuls of barley. It was by this theft (which I am satisfied was a lawful one) ...
— Perils and Captivity • Charlotte-Adelaide [nee Picard] Dard

... Krishna died, I was unable to revive them. Hence it was that I abandoned them. I did not, however, abandon them as long as they were alive. To frighten one that has sought protection, the slaying of a woman, the theft of what belongs to a Brahmana, and injuring a friend, each of these four, O Shakra, is I think equal to the abandonment ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... railways fell, through premiums offered as rewards for saving, from 27,000 thalers to 5,000, in spite of an increase in the amount of traffic. (v. Mangoldt, Volkswirthschaftslehre, 349.) This was, besides, the most effectual way of controlling the theft ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • William Roscher

... Maitland, Captain: Napolean surrenders to. Mantua: situation, Cathedral; monuments of the Gonzagas; the T palace and gardens. Marengo: the Battle of, Commemoration column thrown down. Maria Louisa: ordered to quit papal territory, enthusiastic reception of, at Bologna; victim of a strange theft. Mars, Mlle: graceful acting of. Massieu: pupil of the Abbe Sicard. Mayence: Cathedral, Citadel. Michel Angelo: anecdote of. Milan: Teatro della Scala, the Duomo; the women of; dialect; the Zecca; palace; Ambrosian Library; ...
— After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 • Major W. E Frye

... by brutal strength, seeking to exterminate their religion and their speech, to terrify them out of intelligence and independence, to crush them into permanent poverty and ignorance,—why should they tell the truth or respect property? Falsehood and theft are that cunning which is the natural and necessary weapon of weakness. Their falsehood is their resistance, in the only form that weakness can use, evasion instead of force. Their theft is the taking of what is instinctively ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various

... human Destiny that dependeth on our acts, and the Inevitable, are irresistible in respect of creatures. (If it were not so), how could such a misfortune afflict this wife of ours so faithful and virtuous, like a false accusation of theft against an honest man? The daughter of Drupada hath never committed any sinful act, nor hath she done anything that is not commendable: on the contrary, she hath assiduously practised the highest virtues towards Brahmanas. ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Bk. 3 Pt. 2 • Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... lands, mineral lands, and power sites. We know that the beneficiaries of land grants were permitted to exchange ordinary lands for lands of exceptional value without any adequate quid pro quo; and we know that there were no adequate safeguards against theft. ...
— Higher Education and Business Standards • Willard Eugene Hotchkiss

... the baleful lustre of a chief Once pledged in tyranny! O star of dearth Darkly illumining a nation's grief! How many men have worn thee on their brows! Alas for them and us! God's precious gift Of gracious dispensation got by theft - The damning form of false unholy vows! The thief of God and man must have his fee: And thou, John Lackland, despicable prince - Basest of England's banes before or since! Thrice traitor, coward, thief! O thou shalt be The historic warning, trampled and ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... starve us where we lie!" the lieutenant put in. "Or wait for thirst and fever to do the work. Then—rich plunder for the sons of theft!" ...
— The Flying Legion • George Allan England

... for them to know. Even the idea of the respect that they should have for the property of the rich, is only difficult to be insinuated among them—first, because they look on riches as a sort of usurpation, of theft perpetrated upon them, and unhappily this opinion is in great part true—secondly, because their excessive poverty makes them always consider themselves in the case of absolute necessity—a case in which even very severe moralists ...
— Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers - Reprinted From an English Work, Entitled "Half-Hours With - The Freethinkers." • Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts

... active principles in voluntary acts, such as the acts of sins, are not determined, of necessity, to one act, and consequently from one active or motive principle, diverse species of sins can proceed: thus from fear engendering false humility man may proceed to theft, or murder, or to neglect the flock committed to his care; and these same things may proceed from love enkindling to undue ardor. Hence it is evident that sins do not differ specifically according to their various active ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas

... bring him unto the death. And a certain woman was washing flax nigh unto the place where the saint was to pass; and her they directed to hide much of the flax in a hollow tree, and when the saint and his company passed by to accuse him as of the theft. And the woman did according as she was induced, nay rather as she was seduced; and loudly crying out, called these children of Belial, and with wicked tongue accused him thereof. And they, as before they had contrived, rushed forth ...
— The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick - Including the Life by Jocelin, Hitherto Unpublished in America, and His Extant Writings • Various

... since you are so revengeful, you shall suffer your part of the disgrace; if you testify against me for adultery, I shall testify against you for theft: There's an ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden

... Roman authors of those times, whom he has not translated in SEJANUS and CATILINE: but he has done his robberies so openly, that one may see he fears not to be taxed by any law. He invades authors, like a Monarch; and what would be Theft in other Poets, is only Victory in him. With the spoils of these Writers, he so represents old Rome to us, in its rites, ceremonies, and customs; that if one of their own poets had written either of his Tragedies, we had seen less of it than ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe

... chronicles of the Eighurs have it, long ago there fell metal from the Black Racer of the skies; the first dagger was made of it; and the first image of the Prince of Darkness. These pass from Kurd to Cossack by theft, by gift, by loss; they pass from nation to nation by accident, ...
— The Dark Star • Robert W. Chambers

... Newburyport has been dear to me many years. I was confirmed and married there—but you know. Everything I could do for it has been a satisfaction. And I looked forward to giving this parish-house. In ordinary years a theft of five thousand dollars would not have prevented me, but there have been complications and large expenses of late, to which this loss is the last straw. I shall have to postpone the parish-house,—but it shall be only ...
— The Militants - Stories of Some Parsons, Soldiers, and Other Fighters in the World • Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews

... naturally; from this function it cannot, however, be inferred that he was originally a chthonic deity—a character that does not accord with the early portraitures of him. Like other gods he grew morally, but he never reached ethical distinction. Skill in theft was in early times often regarded as a virtue,[1327] and in general he who got the better of his fellows was esteemed a master of good luck and prosperity; and a bestower of outward prosperity Hermes came to be.[1328] ...
— Introduction to the History of Religions - Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV • Crawford Howell Toy

... puzzled. They had not made up their minds as to the guilt or innocence of the man charge with the theft. ...
— Andy Grant's Pluck • Horatio Alger

... conspiracy of yesterday was one of Snelling's hatching. Was it not possible the employee desired the invention for his own profit? That, to be sure, would be calamity enough, but it would at least clear Mr. Galbraith of theft and reinstate him in the young man's confidence. If only that could be the answer to the riddle, how thankful ...
— Flood Tide • Sara Ware Bassett

... cut in sharply. "You might as well say Shakespeare sanctioned theft because he wrote, 'Who steals my purse steals trash!' The only sanction worth anything is inside you. And you didn't seem to find it there. But let's get at the point. Did ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver

... Curiously enough, petty theft was considered a shame in the Province of Goyaz, and was occasionally severely punished; whereas murderers were usually set free. I saw a poor negro there who had stolen a handful of beans and had been sent to five years' penal servitude, ...
— Across Unknown South America • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... door was like. And she stood for some time looking into the landscape, remembering vaguely, somewhere at the back of her mind, that she could not take the Prioress's papers with her, they did not belong to her; the convent could institute an action for theft against her, the Prioress not having made any formal will, only a memorandum saying she would like Evelyn ...
— Sister Teresa • George Moore

... he told Captain Berry that he would give him, in return, a pair of French pistols, to protect him on his journey home, this mean French officer never performed his promise. To such a pitch, indeed, did these miscreants carry their cruelty and theft, that they purloined the English surgeon's instruments, while he was performing operations on the wounded; and nearly rendered mortal the wound of Captain Thompson, by forcibly obstructing his attendance. In short, the miseries suffered by this unfortunate crew, both before and after ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) • James Harrison

... occupation of London, the people of the town in terror, the insurgents in subjection to their leaders, and still more so to their own ideas. Many of them were drunk, but no outrages were committed. The influence of one terrible example repressed all theft. Never had so orderly a mob held possession of ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 4 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... (including sea) and Spirits, and the gems were inscribed with as many sentences: (1) To Allah belong Majesty and Might; (2) All created things praise the Lord; (3) Heaven and Earth are Allah's slaves and (4) There is no god but the God and Mohammed is His messenger. For Sakhr and his theft of the signet see Dr. Weil's, "The Bible, the Koran, and ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 7 • Richard F. Burton

... saw an army of red ants besieging a colony of small black ants. The object of the red ants was the theft of the pupae or young of the black ants. These pupae they take to their own nest and rear as slaves, the enslaved ants to all appearances becoming entirely satisfied with their condition, and working for their ...
— The Dawn of Reason - or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals • James Weir

... said they, "that the master has withheld the gardener's share of the prunings." "What else, pray, did he leave me?" retorted Rav Hunna; "he has stolen all the produce of my vineyard." They replied, "There is a saying that whoever steals from a thief smells of theft." "Then," said he, "I hereby promise to give him his share." Thereupon, according to some, the vinegar turned to wine again; and, according to others, the price of vinegar rose to the ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various

... wee call the lawes of our Countrey to witnesse, which the Islanders from the beginning haue vsed all one with the Norwayes: of the King and his subiects: of the seate of iustice, and of law cases which come to be decided there, of inheritances: of adoptions, marriages, theft, extortions, lending, bargaines, and the rest: all which, to what purpose should they be enioyned vnto them with whom all things are common? We call to witnesse so many broyls and contentions in ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation, v. 1, Northern Europe • Richard Hakluyt

... the contiguity of no Speaker's elbow. But even in his deepest slumber the quick wheels of the bounding cab struck upon the tympanum of his anxious ear. He roused himself as does a noble watch-dog when the 'suspicious tread of theft' approaches. The hurry of the jaded horse, the sudden stop, the maddened furious knock, all told a tale which his well-trained ear only knew too well. He sat up for a moment, listening in his bed, stretched himself with one involuntary yawn, and then stood upright on the floor. It should not ...
— The Three Clerks • Anthony Trollope

... because when he looked again the torch was stuck in the sand at his side and the armored man had one of Jason's boots off and was pulling at the other. Jason could only writhe feebly but not prevent the theft, for some reason he could not force his body to follow his will. His sense of time seemed to have altered as well and though every second dragged heavily by events occurred ...
— The Ethical Engineer • Henry Maxwell Dempsey

... lay their hands upon, especially nails— which, it will be understood, were of very considerable value to us, situated as we then were. But their most serious peccadillo, and the one which had the most disastrous results, was their theft of a brace of revolvers and a number of cartridges. We had no occasion to make use of our firearms until the two savages had been with us about five months; then on a certain day we made the disagreeable discovery ...
— Turned Adrift • Harry Collingwood

... have gone quite through with it, and was thinking to have accomplishd that pleasure a second time before I wrote to thank you, but M. Burney came in the night (while we were out) and made holy theft of it, but we expect restitution in a day or two. It is the noblest conversational poem I ever read. A day in heaven. The part (or rather main body) which has left the sweetest odour on my memory (a bad term for the remains of an impression ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... long and thick her clothed around, And the ivory in golden mantle gowned: So that fair spectacle from him was reft, Yet that which reft it no less fair was found; So hid in locks and waves from lookers' theft, Naught but her lovely face she ...
— Among My Books • James Russell Lowell

... "But you should know best in this matter. If it be theft for which thou art summoned before Cicero, then are we indeed thieftakers. But if so, not only I believe should we be the first legionaries of Rome so employed, but thou the first ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 2 of 2) • Henry William Herbert

... adopted the plan recommended by Lord Bacon, who said, 'Some of the chiefest of the Irish families should be transported to England, and have recompense there for their possessions in Ireland, till they were cleansed from their blood, incontinency, and theft, which were not the lapses of particular persons, but the very laws of the nation.' The Lord Deputy Chichester, however, agreed thoroughly with his attorney-general, for he certainly made no more account of rooting out the 'mere Irish' from their homes than if they were the most noxious ...
— The Land-War In Ireland (1870) - A History For The Times • James Godkin

... to us again. And we intreat you to examine, whether the purchasing of a negro, either born here or imported, doth not contribute to a further importation, and, consequently, to the upholding of all the evils above mentioned, and to the promoting of man-stealing, the, only theft which by the Mosaic law was punished with death;—He that stealeth a man and selleth him or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the - Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) • Thomas Clarkson

... was never any lynch law, never any "free shooting," as on the American goldfields. Public order was generally respected, though there were at first no police. The miners, however, kept up Vigilance Committees, the main purpose of which was to check thefts. Anyone proved guilty of theft, or even seriously suspected of pilfering, was simply ordered out of ...
— Peeps At Many Lands: Australia • Frank Fox

... we have learned in Chapter IV.,[411] adopting the celebrated formula of Proudhon, have proclaimed "Property is theft," and they are of opinion that property in land is a particularly heinous form of theft. Therefore they demand the restitution of the land to the people, not as a matter of expediency but as a matter of right. "Man has a right only to what his labour makes. No man 'makes' the land."[412] "Land is ...
— British Socialism - An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals • J. Ellis Barker

... that if any senator present had his watch stolen from his room he would be very slow to charge the crime against the servant who was last seen in the room, even under very suspicious circumstances; but if he found that the servant had been discharged for theft from various places previously, this would be more important than any other circumstance. I showed how safeguards which had been devised in the middle ages to protect citizens from the feudal lord were now used to aid criminals in evading the law, and I ended ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... for them, have abandoned work and the cultivation of their lands, and become vagabonds, both men and women—courting the favor of the Spaniards, and committing and causing numberless offenses against God. For the natives are addicted to theft and licentiousness, and the women are ready to sell their persons; and for these reasons there is, here, more than an intimacy of men ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume VIII (of 55), 1591-1593 • Emma Helen Blair

... thief having disappeared, his master was put in prison till further evidence could be procured, for no one but those in the secret doubted that he was the instigator of the theft. ...
— Hindoo Tales - Or, The Adventures of Ten Princes • Translated by P. W. Jacob

... to stop them from using the drawings, hot not too late to punish them for the theft. It's a great mystery, and I'll be on the anxious seat all the while. But it can't ...
— Tom Swift and his Sky Racer - or, The Quickest Flight on Record • Victor Appleton

... surprised everybody; no one could explain it except on the theory of theft, and as her rags were not worth twenty sous, even this ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

... Surasenas perform sacrifices, the Easterners follow the practices of the Shudras; the Southerners are fallen; the Vahikas are thieves; the Saurashtras are bastards. They that are defiled by ingratitude, theft, drunkenness, adultery with the wives of their preceptors, harshness of speech, slaughter of kine, lustful wanderings during the night out of home, and the wearing of other people's ornaments,—what sin is there that they do not incur? Fie on the Arattas and the people of the country of the five ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... from the assassination which the Grand Master had instigated, and aided by the instinct of his dog, also disguised, he detected the thief in Conrade. Richard thereupon, at once charged Conrade with the theft, and challenged him to mortal combat. The King was prevented by the Council of the Princes from fighting in person, but having divined in the Nubian slave the former Knight of the Leopard, he permitted Sir Kenneth to fight in his stead, that the knight might atone for the dishonor of ...
— The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 • Ministry of Education

... God's grace, lead to its eschewal: all there was black, foul, and deadly, ready for the devil's deadliest work. Murder crouched there, ready to spring, yet afraid;—cowardly, but too thirsty alter blood to heed its own fears. Theft,—low, pilfering, pettifogging, theft; avarice, lust, and impotent, scalding hatred. Controlled by these the black blood rushed quick to and from his heart, filling him with sensual desires below the passions of a brute, but denying him one feeling or one appetite ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope

... was a favorite one of hers; she meaning by it, that if one must be punished for an act, such as theft for instance, that the punishment would be no more severe if a sheep were taken ...
— Behind the Scenes - or, Thirty years a slave, and Four Years in the White House • Elizabeth Keckley

... me utter a word of warning. Apparently it is the practice of certain cheap second-hand booksellers to abstract the engraved plates from folio books, occasionally also removing the 'List of Plates' that the theft may remain undiscovered, and to sell the works thus mutilated as sound and perfect copies. Needless to say to the print collector such plates are invariably worth a shilling or two apiece, if portraits considerably more. I know to my cost one London bookseller who habitually removes the ...
— The Book-Hunter at Home • P. B. M. Allan

... again; To have renewed the joys that once were mine, Without the sin of violating thine; And, while the wings of Fancy still are free, And I can view this mimic show of thee, Time has but half succeeded in his theft,— Thyself removed, thy ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey



Words linked to "Theft" :   larceny, petty, thievery, petit larceny, shrinkage, defalcation, shoplifting, biopiracy, breach of trust with fraudulent intent, robbery, petty larceny, misappropriation, rustling, pilferage, stealing, peculation



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