Even Thieves Need to Be Cultured

By Putizi

Knowledge is power. This is a phrase of truth for any profession. Even thieves cannot be uneducated.

Eduardo Chillida was a Spanish sculptor with excellent taste and wisdom. He perfectly blended rational logic with poetic passion and has been regarded as a leading figure in the field of contemporary visual art. Unfortunately, there was a thief who knew nothing of him and treated his work like scrap metal. In 2006, a bunch of famous artworks were stolen in a warehouse in the southern suburbs of Madrid, which worth some five million euros. Later, a scrap metal buyer called the police, who then retrieved most of these valuable artworks.Topos IV, a bench-like iron sculpture of Chillida worth about 800,000 euros, was among those stolen, and unfortunately sold by the thief for only 30 euros.

The case is surely not alone in Spain. Similar things happen in China, too. A sixteen-year-old thief was working at a place in Beijing. He stripped the bedroom apart and painstakingly pried the safe open. In the end, he took 20,000 yuan in cash and 40,000 yuan in gold jewelry. The study was also ransacked, but he didn’t see the paintings on the walls. There was a piece by Zhang Daqian and another by Fan Zeng. In any case, those pieces would be worth millions.

In Hong Kong, there was a purse snatcher. He would wait until nighttime and look for women alone on lightly populated streets. In the end, he was caught by the police and sentenced to prison for crimes amounting to over 600,000 yuan. In court, the thief claimed he was being treated unfairly. He figured that everything he had stolen could only amount to around 30,000 yuan. He didn’t realize that the bags found in his place were all from famous luxury brands. Any one of those bags would be worth more than 30,000 yuan by itself.

(FromHumor & Jokes, Issue 11, 2012. Translation: Sam Bowden)

知识就是力量，这句话，对于任何行业而言都是真理，小偷没文化也是不行的。

西班牙雕塑家爱德华多·奇利达，有着卓越的品位与睿智，将理性逻辑与诗意激情完美地融于一体，是当代视觉艺术领域的领军人物。很不幸，就有小偷不识货，把他的作品当成废品。2006年，一批艺术名品在马德里南部郊区的一座仓库内被盗，总价值500 万欧元。后来，一名废品收购商报了案，警方才得以追回这些宝贝。其中就有奇利达的一件形如长椅的铁塑作品，估值约为80 万欧元，而小偷出售这件作品的费用，仅为30 欧元。

无独有偶，一个16 岁的小偷在北京作案，房间被翻了个遍，保险柜也被费劲打开，最后，拿走了2 万元现金和价值4 万元的黄金饰品。书房里，他也翻了，却没有看到墙上的那几幅画，有一幅是张大千的，有一幅是范曾的，怎么着也得好几百万吧。

在香港，有一个小偷专门抢包，趁天黑，在人少的街道上抢劫单身女性，最后被警察抓住，立案判刑，涉案金额高达60 万。小偷在法庭上叫冤，说自己只抢了大概三万元。他不知道，他住所里的那几个包都是名牌，随便一个也不止三万元。

（摘自《幽默与笑话》2012年第11 期）