I cannot believe that things like this still happen in today's world, although I'd be surprised if it wasn't a little bit embellished. This piece reminds me a little bit of the documentary about the Russian mafia, Thieves By Law (I'm pretty sure it's on youtube, go watch it). Aging master criminals who want their stories to be told to a world that they know is eager to hear about them. How fortunate that we have such an accessible medium to distribute their tales.
But... it kinda sounds like Pipino and Palmiso were running a two man confidence racket. Pipino would steal, Palmiso wouldn't catch him but would manage to recover something priceless that had been taken.
Man this makes me want to go back to Venice. Amazing city - getting lost in the back alleys and searching out the best cicchetti is a fantastic way to spend a week or two.
"Have you looked at them?" Pipino said, holding up a fork. The craftsmanship was impeccable. "If you don’t take them, it’s a sin," he declared. "Plus, they’re worth about a million lire." That was roughly $100,000. Claudio nodded and moved on.
In 1991, one dollar was worth about 1,200 Italian liras, so a million liras would be about $800.
Different groups have different moral codes. If you're a highly respected, professional burglar then not taking something so good could be considered professional misconduct.
The origin of the word "sin" as most people use it today is a word from archery. It means hitting the target but missing the center. Pretty apt for a renowned burglar to not take something which is highly valuable and very portable on a robbery.
I guess its a comment about the morality of the rich. The idea being that to get rich, whatever rich is, it is assumed that they effectively stole from the poor. So taking it back is re-appropriation, or some such.
Personally, I see tax as the civilised way of doing that. Granted, that doesn't work that well, but then given our democracies, that up to the masses to vote for it, who are basically the poor.
Impressive guy, I guess, but... a gentleman wouldn't steal in the first place. Not even from the wealthy. Though refusing violence is in fact a nice thing in a criminal...
I recall reading that in (medieval?) Europe, some nobles who ran out of money would rather become highwaymen and rob travelers than actually work for a living, as this was deemed beneath them.
I have absolutely no recollection where I read this, so it could easily be false.
There's a similar, but not identical, saying in Spanish: "El que roba de un ladrón tiene cien años de perdón", or, "He who steals from a thief is forgiven for a hundred years."
