The Good Thief Blog #2

____Ren, the main character of The Good Thief, is actually very good at slight-of-hand. While he is missing a hand, it doesn't stop him at all when he wants something. When he grew up in the orphanage, though, he was taught that stealing was a sin, but when he was taken in by Benjamin who was a con artist he was praised because of his skill. When he stole a book, The Deerslayer, from a bookstore because Benjamin was trying to sell the book that he got from the orphanage, Ren walked into a pile of books and grabbed the book while the shopkeeper was cleaning up. After he stole the book and went directly against what he was told as he grew up, he thought "It had been easier to take than he had thought"(Tinti 65). When he realized that he could steal things without being punished by God, Ren started to steal more often. The next day, Benjamin and Tom, his partner in crime, went "fishing". But as Ren went with them, he saw them stealing the jewelry and teeth from corpses from the local cemetery. As they were looking over their loot, Ren was asked to see how well he could steal, but "Ren paused for a moment, tensed and ready; then he brought his fist from behind his back, opened his fingers, and showed the ring he had already stolen from the table...Tom and Benjamin moved froward to see, then leaned back and roared with laughter"(Tinti 75). When he was praised instead of being punished, like he expected, his assumptions were thrown off completely, because he realized that sometimes stealing could bring good things to people. Tom, Benjamin, and now Ren have to live off of what they steal and dig up out of graves.