John was the school's most popular thief. Sifting through a bag left unattended for a moment, he'd strike up conversation with the owner as they returned, hardly pausing from his single-minded plunder of their personal electronics. Yet while the boy had been repeatedly disciplined by the relevant authorities, his crimes never seemed to come to a head: there remained something almost charming about his childish enthusiasm for theft that disarmed even his most outspoken victims.

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