Stealing means taking (something) without permission and without in-tending to return it. A person who steals is called a thief or a robber. There are different categories of thieves. Robin Hood was a popular thief. He was loved by people. He used to steal wealth belonging to rich persons and distributed them among the poor. Same is the story of Alibaba and 40 thieves. These bandits did not harass common people. Valmiki Rishi, the author of epic Ramayana was once a brigand and his name then was Valya. Eventually one day he was convinced by sage Narada that his way of life is sinful. Thenceforth he led a pious life. If an act of abducting someone amounts to robbing, then Rawana, the king of Lanka falls in the category of robbers.
Perhaps urge of stealing is hidden in our blood. May be because of this, there is special provision for activities of stealing in our traditional fes-tivals. In Goa, during Shigmo festival thieves’ ceremonies are celebrated at many places. On one particular day, in the evening a group of young boys, by smearing black colours over their bodies, turn ‘thieves’. Then they enter the village and plunder whatever they find on their way. This includes fruits, vegetables and fowls. Nobody in the village resists or abuses them on that day. Looting is another name of stealing. On Dussehra day, Hindus loot gold (leaves of a certain tree imagined as gold) and on Makar Sakranti day, married women of the above com-munity loot powders of turmeric and vermillion. It is believed that these ceremonies give free expressions to the impulses of stealing.
There is one song in an old Hindi movie ‘Bhaee-bhaee’ written by Ra-jendra Krishnaand sung by Lata Mangueshkar. The essence of that song is: In this world all are thieves (Is duniya me sub chor chor). Some are white thieves, others are black. Some small, others big. Some steal money, others steal chicken. Some steal others’ hearts whereas some steal sleeps of others! Kleptomania is a mental illness that creates strong urge to steal. A person who steals books is biblioklept and a person who steals another person’s ideas, words and works is called plagiarist.
Recently, the former president of USA Donald Trump was accused for hiding from the government the real value of his assets worth billions of dollars. This act of Trump is described by Letitia James, Attorney General of New York as the ‘art of stealing’. She is quite right in calling stealing an art. There is a local game named ‘chor-shipai’ (meaning thieves and police).This game requires many participants and is prefer-ably played after sunsets. There are two rival groups in this game: Thieves and police. It is interesting to note that players prefer to be thieves rather than to be police as they say there is more thrill in being formers!
Nevertheless, stealing is a crime. And crimes deserve punishments. But these punishments are generally deterrent in nature. After pronounc-ing the sentence, a judge said to a thief, “you are punished not because you stole sheep but because sheep should not be stolen.” The above words of the judge explain the meaning of deterrent punishment.
