Give Me Back My Wallet



"That's not for you."

- Keeper, Thief

Out of nowhere, a pickpocket runs up and steals something from a character. In a display of street smarts and alertness, the victim immediately apprehends the pickpocket, retrieves his belongings, and lets the pickpocket scurry off in shame. A variation has the pickpocket steal the wallet, and find it contains nothing but a snarky note.

Often done to show that the intended victim was perhaps once a pickpocket himself. Sometimes takes place in a Wretched Hive where almost everyone is a thief of some kind, on top of which, just maybe, There Are No Police.

Another possible scenario is when a thief or former thief is part of the regular cast, and the other character simply demands their wallet back at the appropriate moment—usually implying not that they caught the thief in action, but simply that they find the pickpocket predictable.

See also The Killer Becomes the Killed and Sticky Fingers. See Mugging the Monster for the supertrope.

Anime and Manga

 * In Slayers Next snatches a jewel from Lina's shoulder pads. It's was such a bad idea Lina had to stop her teammates trying to pursue a thief. In Slayers Perfect a thief ran away with Lina's purse only to be embarrassed when.
 * In Rurouni Kenshin, this is how Kaouru and Kenshin first meet up with Yahiko. Ironically, it's Kenshin who gets pickpocketed and Kaouru who catches Yahiko. Kenshin offers him the money anyways.
 * A variation in Gintama. The thief gets away with Gintoki's wallet-thing only to find out that not only is there no money in it, but Gintoki stole his wallet. Gintoki ends up spending the little thief's money on parfaits while lecturing him about his sub-par skills.
 * In Meitantei Holmes, a young pickpocket steals Watson's wallet, and Holmes is savvy enough to pickpocket it right back without the original thief noticing.
 * In Gunslinger Girl, Henrietta's purse is stolen by a guy on a motorcycle. In a display of her cyborg abilities, she chases him down on foot and attacks him with her bare hands until he returns it. Not bad for a young girl.

Comics

 * Happens in the Sandman with Dream retrieving his ruby instead of his wallet. The pickpocket, however, refuses to admit to stealing it until Dream sets his dreams as nightmares about his future execution.
 * X-Men: This is how Charles Xavier initially met Storm—then a pickpocket on the streets of Cairo—years before he recruited her to the X-Men.
 * In the Lucky Luke episode "Fingers", the eponymous magician keeps pickpocketing Luke's pistol, much to his annoyance. But in the end, he gets even by pickpocketing Fingers' wallet and offering it in exchange for his pistol.

Film

 * Hannibal. See the Literature example below.
 * Maverick. The title character does this the first time Annabelle Bransford lifts his wallet. The second time he doesn't notice the theft at the time and has to track her down, after which she gives him back the wallet without having to be asked.
 * Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has Indy catching Short Round trying to steal from him off screen. Rather than let him go, he keeps him around abducts him, mostly so he can take care of him it seems.
 * In the movie To Rob a Thief, it's performed by the protagonist and the antagonist (a thief and a former thief respectively) at the same time, just to say that they're still the best thieves.
 * It's performed earlier in the movie when the protagonist steals the wallet of a smuggler, only to be caught by him and threatened with a gun just a minute later.
 * A variation in Bulletproof Monk. Kar picks someone's pocket, then the Monk picks Kar's pocket and pretends the original victim had dropped his wallet. The Monk implies he will continue to do so until Kar starts listening to him and taking him seriously.
 * A different take on this is in The Man Who Would Be King. Michael Caine's character steals a pocket watch from a journalist at a train station, only to realise he's a fellow Mason. He then boards the train and blames an Indian passenger for the loss of the watch so he can return it. The journalist points out that he noticed his watch was missing...back at the station.
 * At the end of 48 Hours Eddie Murphy's character tells Nick Nolte that he intends to go straight after he's paroled, "But just in case I don't, what makes you think you can catch me?" Nick replies: "Can I have my lighter back?"
 * In Ocean's Eleven, Danny watches Linus pick someone's pocket on a train. Later, Linus discovers that Danny has picked his pocket and replaced the wallet with a note complimenting him and offering him a job.

Literature
"Khelben: No! A gold elf, in that cesspool of a city? What the Nine bloody Hells was she doing there?
 * Happens near the beginning of Robert A. Heinlein's novella Gulf. FBS (Federal Bureau of Security) agent Joe Briggs grabs the hand of a pickpocket as he's picking Joe's pocket.
 * Subverted when the pickpocket turns out to be a secret agent who had already switched the wallet for a duplicate.
 * Also happens in Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy.
 * In the Discworld novel Night Watch, Vimes carries out a calm conversation with a young pickpocket and then at the end reels off a list of items that the pickpocket has lifted from him during that conversation. The kid is impressed.
 * In Death gives us Roarke, who returns to the slums he grew up in to find a young child of ten try and pick his pocket. His response? "I was better than you when I was six."
 * In Orson Scott Card's Hart's Hope, the main character manages to retrieve his money from the pickpocket by threatening to remove the pickpocket's testicles with his bare hands.
 * In Hannibal Dr. Lecter murders the guy who tries to pickpocket him. Though he was also partially murdered by Commendatore Pazzi, the Dirty Cop who had hired the pickpocket in the first place to get fingerprints, who intentionally lets him bleed to death so as not to blow his own cover.
 * In Windwalker Khelben Arunsun was shocked by his lady love's offhanded mention that she found her cute Gold Elf pupil in Skullport. Then it got better.

Laeral: Surviving, and doing a damn good job of it. She lifted my purse. The thing was magically warded, and she still almost got away with it.

Khelben: That convinced you to bring her to my tower as an apprentice?

Laeral: Why not? Talent is talent. For that matter, Sharlarra isn't a gold elf. But we're getting sidetracked."


 * In the first Artemis Fowl novel, someone tries to pickpocket Butler, and gets his fingers broken without so much as a wayward glance.
 * In Jack Vance's The Demon Princes series, a mugger tries to waylay Howard Alan Treesong. The problem is, he's just waylaid the Lord of the Overmen - king of all criminals - who has licensed all criminal activity in the sector... and this mugger isn't one of them. Bad move.

Live Action TV

 * Leverage Parker's mentor Archie asks her for his wallet back after they share an embrace.
 * Nate also catches her at this once.
 * Said to be how they met as well (Archie was already a master thief, but was impressed by Parker, noting that she had "the gift")
 * It's also how Parker Recruited Archie for the Big Con in "The Last Dam Job" by stealling not only Archie's Wallet, His daughters Wallet, and His granddaughter's Lollipop.
 * and you also hear "Put It Back, Parker" in a few episodes.
 * In the episode "Message" in Firefly, Mal apprehends a kid in the act of attempting to pick his pocket.
 * Played for comedy in Caroline in The City, with Richard accidentally mugging someone when he mistakenly thought that his own wallet had been stolen.
 * It's a lot funnier (and more meaningful) in context: Richard had previously been mugged by a scrawny short guy whom Caroline managed to subdue and turn over to the police. After spending a while embarrassed by this, the aforementioned incident happens...with the "victim" being much taller and muscular than Richard. After Richard is bailed out of jail, both Caroline and Richard take pride in this fact.
 * Burn Notice: A habit of Michael's former love interest (and professional thief).
 * Neal Caffrey has stolen Peter Burke's wallet more than once and it's even used in a promotional spot for White Collar and Psych when Neal lifts Gus's wallet and Gus decides he doesn't want to hang out with Neal anymore.
 * In the Doctor Who episode "Victory of The Daleks", Winston Churchill tries to pickpocket the TARDIS key. In a mild subversion, the Doc doesn't notice, but companion Amy does and tells him to give it back to the Doctor.
 * On Dexter, the title character's wallet is stolen by a juvenile delinquent named Jeremy
 * Murder Rooms. Dr Bell meets a photographer and his assistant, an irredeemable street thug who does the bump-into-and-steal-wallet trick on Bell. The photographer promptly knocks him down and forces him to return the wallet, whereupon Bell shows he'd already stolen the thug's cosh.
 * Married... with Children: Al has his wallet lifted regularly, by both kids AND his wife. Sometimes he catches them in the act, sometimes not (which apparently led to deportation in one instance)
 * Averted in CSI: NY, where Mac has to track the guy down first and is determined to see him punished for it. Especially when it later turns out he's connected to a larger crime.

Video Games

 * Played with in Uncharted 3. Here,
 * Happens off-screen in Dragon Age: One of the Grey Warden recruits who team up with you in the beginning tells you that he got recruited when he picked Duncan's pockets, but the old Gray Warden chased him halfway across town, where he finally ran headfirst into a guard-detail, who were only too happy to finally have a chance to hang him. Duncan was so impressed with his agility and stamina, that he conscripted the thief on the spot, saving him from the gallows.
 * Happens (naturally) in Thief. The whole mess started when Street Urchin Garrett tried to pickpocket a Keeper. The Keeper caught him but was impressed, since most people fail to notice Keepers when they don't want to be noticed, let alone target and follow them. He then takes Garrent under his wing to train him as a Keeper which, as you can probably tell by the title, doesn't stick.
 * Happens again at the end of Deadly Shadows, this time with Garrett in the Keeper's spot.
 * Possible in Planescape: Torment, if your Dexterity is high enough.
 * A variation can occur in Assassin's Creed II if your reflexes are good enough and you're paying attention. Pickpockets will show up on your radar. All you have to do is make sure you're facing away from them, draw a weapon, and kill them when they get close. Or you can chase them down after they steal from you, but it's a huge pain in the ass.
 * In Brotherhood, though, you can just shoot them. With either your hidden gun or your crossbow. Or that upgrade for the hidden blade that shoots poisoned needles...or a throwing knife...go nuts, really.

Webcomics

 * Inverted in Freefall: Sam Starfall picks the pocket of someone with whom he was "discussing business", goes to buy lunch with it, and realizes that his pocket was picked at the same time.
 * Order of the Stick, except that Haley turns the tables by picking the pickpockets' pockets.
 * Followed by a snarky comment about finding a town with wealthier thieves.
 * Subverted in Something Positive: Jason has a decoy wallet containing only a chain letter that urges the pickpocket to put it into other victims' pockets.
 * In Dragonball Elsewhere, a pickpocket attempts to steal Yamcha's wallet using super speed. Unfortunately, it's not quite super enough, and Yamcha notices, knocks him out, and takes his wallet back.
 * In The War of Winds, Talon steals from Ravar and is caught, threatened & picked up off the ground. He asked for it back but Talon countered the Grapple and escapes via the rooftops. Talon, thinking he's escaped, finally finds a place to rest and was caught by Ravar who retrieved what he had stolen from him.

Western Animation

 * Subverted for a comedic B-plot in an episode of King of the Hill: Hank thinks he's taking back his wallet, but he's actually mistakenly stealing another man's wallet. When he realizes this he tries to return the wallet and apologize, but that incident was the straw that broke the camel's back for the other man who, tired of being the Cosmic Plaything, chases Hank and friends with a baseball bat.
 * Futurama - Bender has been caught this way more than once.