14 Metaphors for stealing

Sheep stealing was his next vocation, but in this he was caught and transferred to prison.

"Thou shalt not steal" is an eternally binding law for nations and for individuals.

"As I understand it," said the earl, slowly, a faint blush stealing into his cheeks, "an 'amateur' is a lover.

That the stealing of slaves from Africa should be felony.

The stealing of an enchanter's cup at a fairy feast by a peasant is a favourite subject of fairy mythology.

"This stealing of wives is one cause of the frequent wars that take place amongst the natives.

Before the expiration of a year, however, he was convicted of having stolen a horse, and as horse-stealing was a capital offence at that time, he suffered the penalty of death at Hereford.

Stealing was first capital in the reign of Henry I. False coining, which was then a very common crime, was severely punished.

From older writers, however, one gets the impression that wife-stealing was a common custom.

The stealings of this popular civil officer were common talk in Quebec.

The Indians asked him if "Captain Boon" had sent him to steal horses; and when he answered frankly that the stealing was his own idea, they forthwith proceeded to beat him lustily with their ramrods, at the same time showering on him epithets that showed they had at least learned the profanity of the traders.

Stealing, he admitted, must be a taking, lucri causa, for the sake of gain; butso he told the jury in one of his instructions"this desire of gain need not be to convert the article taken to histhe taker'sown use, nor to obtain for the thief the value in money of the thing stolen.

" "He didn't steal the hoss?" This with more bated breath than if the question had been: "He didn't kill a man?" for indeed horse-stealing was the greater crime.

The stealing of books, as well as the losing of books, from public libraries is a melancholy and ancient chapter in the histories of such institutions; indeed, there is too much reason to believe that not a few books in the Bodleian itself were stolen to start with.

14 Metaphors for  stealing