Impossible Thief: Difference between revisions

** In one movie alone he stole a submarine, a large nuclear fuel source, a space shuttle, and a satellite full of money.

** In another he started a legitimate company by stealing oil from a rival company's well.

* Jack Rakan from [[Mahou Sensei Negima]] stole [[Panty Thief|panties]] off one of two girls without them noticing. The only reason he didn't get both of them is that the other girl was [[Going Commando]]. And he is supposed to be a fighter, not a thief. He later one-ups himself by stealing the panties off of several of Fate's minions simultaneously.

* ''[[King of Bandit Jing|Jing, King of Bandits]]'', it's claimed that the title character can steal anything and that is what he does. He ''does'' concede defeat after discovering that one treasure is a landmark. Given that he has succeeded in stealing greed, a dream, and a smile, this is quite an admission.

** However, those three things did have a physical representation that was small enough to carry one-handed. A landmark is not.

* [[Unlucky Everydude|Ataru Moroboshi]] from [[Urusei Yatsura]] does this to [[Magical Girlfriend|Lum]] in the first episode, stealing the top to her [[Stripperific|bikini]] outfit from 20 feet or so away, pulling it from his pants of all places, to distract her long enough for him to [[Accidental Marriage|tag her horns]].

* Deconstructed by [[Magic Kaito|Kaitou]] [[Detective Conan|KID]], in several ways. While the biggest thing he has ever stolen is a pair of clock hands from a clock tower, the way he [[Incredibly Lame Pun|performs]] his heists make him an impossible thief. Among fan favorites is him literally walking in midair, and establishing an alibi in true [[Code Geass|Lelouch]] form by going on a date and performing his heist, effectively putting him in literally two places at once. Shinichi has long since given up on figuring out his identity, focusing more on how he performs his impossible tasks.

* [[Sticky Fingers|Genma]], [[Five-Finger Discount|Ranma]], and possibly [[Panty Thief|Happosai]] from ''[[Ranma One Half]]'' apply to this trope. Genma and Ranma using the Umisenken can steal the floor out from under trained martial artists or the clothes they are wearing without them noticing until after it was done. Happosai and Ranma have been shown to be able to steal underclothes (or objects hidden within them) while the people were still wearing them.

'''Mom''': "My PURSE!"<br />

'''Kitty''': "My VIRGINITY! Wow, she's good." }}

* In the Franco-Belgian comic ''[[Achille Talon]]'', kleptomaniac Toussaint Glinglin is able to steal absolutely everything, including people clothes while talking to them, or the whole display of a shop he passed by. He even mentions having inadvertently stolen ''bells'' while visiting churches.

 

* In ''[[Despicable Me]]'', one of Gru's rival villains is able to completely remove one of the Pyramids of Giza and replace it with an inflatable model without anyone noticing. Gru himself mentions stealing [[Frank's 2000-Inch TV|the Times Square Jumbo-tron]], the Statue of Liberty ("The small one, from Las Vegas"), and the Eiffel Tower ("Also from Vegas"), and the film's plot largely revolves around his scheme to steal the moon.

* In ''[[It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie]]'', Kermit enters [[Wonderful Life|an alternate reality in which he never existed]] and meets Fozzie, who has become a street thief. Fozzie promptly picks his pocket. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Kermit's angel companion, who correctly points out that Kermit, being a frog, doesn't ''have'' any pockets.

 

 

* In ''[[Discworld]]'' the daughter of Cohen the Barbarian once managed to steal some jewelry by pickpocketing the boss of Ankh-Morpork thieves' guild. It wouldn't be an impossible feat if not for the fact that the jewels weren't in his pocket. He had swallowed them.

{{quote| This was the type of thief who could steal the initiative, the moment and the words right out of your mouth.}}

*** And an {{spoiler|omen}}

* In the [[Thursday Next]] book ''The Eyre Affair'' the villain Acheron Hades has various inexplicable abilities such as not appearing on film or video, being impossibly persuasive, practically unkillable, able to "lie in thought, word and deed" and can push his hand through a bulletproof glass case to steal the item inside leaving only a faint ripple in the glass. In one scene he muses on how there's no need to hide from the guards, since they would be easily taken care of, but that wouldn't be as much fun.

* The title character of [[Roald Dahl]]'s short story "The Hitchhiker"; which was made into an episode of ''[[Tales of the Unexpected]]''.

* Played surprisingly straight in the ''[[Bernice Summerfield]]'' novel ''Ship of Fools.'' The brilliant thief called the Cat's Paw defeats the most advanced technological security systems.

* In the [[Kid Detective]] series ''Misfits Inc.'', the first book starts with an extremely valuable microchip vanishing while in plain sight, under glass, in the middle of a room. {{spoiler|The lead figures out that the chip was never there in the first place; it was a ''hologram'' of the chip that had been installed in the base, and the battery had simply died. The chip had been stolen some time ago.}}

** Acknowledged in-universe. There is ''nothing'' he can't steal, except, it is said, himself out of a prison.

*** He could've done that too, but he was in the middle of a [[Batman Gambit]] that hinged on still being in prison. For reals. He means it you guys.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* In ''[[The Two Ronnies]]'' sketch show, there was an extended series of sketches where they played stage magicians caught up around a diamond heist and having to investigate it for themselves. To reveal the plot at the end they invited the [[Villains]] on stage during their act and proceeded with a pickpocket act which went from the mundane "Is this your wallet, sir?" to the absurd "Is this your [[Panty Thief|knicker elastic]], madam?" (the [[Dark Chick]]'s underwear fall down from under her dress at this point) and finally getting to the point of "Is this your stolen diamond, sir?" They also stole the man's belt, setting things up so neither villain could run effectively.

* ''[[Leverage]]'' has a [[Catch Phrase]] "Let's go steal an X", though they usually do this through [[Bavarian Fire Drill]] or similar means. This has led to lines like "Let's go steal us a wedding", "Let's go steal a hospital", or "Let's go steal us a general". The team's thief, Parker, once stole the Hope Diamond, ''then put it back'', just because she didn't have anything better to do.

** In 4th edition, the Thief of Legend epic destiny allows the player characters to approach levels unseen since the double-dealing diva herself. Such a thief can swipe unattended objects or vehicles, intangible concepts such as memory or eyecolor, or even the thief's own soul, ensuring that death will never hold her back.

** Back in third, a dying legendary thief managed to steal his own soul from the god of thieves as proof of his devotion. The plan needed a bit more work (specifically, what would happen to him afterward), but he managed it.

 

 

** The fact the [[Legacy Hero|original Grey Fox]] stole the iconic Grey Cowl from a Daedric Prince (basically demons so powerful they're worshiped as gods) makes these legends well deserved.

* In the bonus chapter of ''[[Disgaea]] 3'', a mysterious thief {{spoiler|actually Overlord Baal in his incarnation as an insanely overpowered yet cutesey mushroom}} is stealing all sorts of ridiculous things from various [[Nippon Ichi]] characters, including: An unspecified item from Mao, a 1 billion HL savings from Etna, a collector's DVD set from Flonne... and then it gets weird: Salvatore's "womanliness", a "space and letter A" from Master Big Star (turning him into Master Bigster), Prism Red's friends, Laharl's height and his screen time in the new game, Axel's stardom, [[Phantom Brave|Marona]]'s "pure heart", and a game in which Asagi (a [[Running Gag]] N1 character) is the main character. Slightly subverted in which {{spoiler|Baal}} says he doesn't remember "stealing all that", making it unclear how much was actually stolen and how much was "insurance fraud".

* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', the Queen of Hearts accuses Alice of being one of these and stealing her heart. The real culprit was a Heartless. The fact that the Heartless managed to steal her heart without her seeing it could also count, unless it did it when she was asleep.

** Should be noted that hearts are not metaphysical concepts in this case (they're also distinct from the muscle)-- they're literally glowing valentine's hearts that serve as a person's emotional and spiritual core, and Heartless steal them on a regular basis (although not always without being noticed).

*** Also, considering that if something stole your heart you'd die, you just HAVE to wonder, how in the hell is SHE alive to say so?

*** The Queen only accused Alice of attempting to steal her heart. If her heart had been stolen, she would have been in no condition to accuse anyone of doing anything.

*** Slightly subverted. {{spoiler|the world this takes place in is actually a computer simulation-- the Dusks didn't actually steal the word photo, they just altered the code so that particular word was left undefined and, hence, had no meaning. As all the characters you meet there are simulated by the program, they are unable to recall the word. In the "real world" of Kingdom Hearts, things like this are not possible and do not occur.}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has an example that overlaps with [[Video Game Stealing]]. Locke Cole, behind enemy lines in occupied South Figaro, steals first a merchant's clothes and then an Imperial officer's uniform, while the merchant and the officer are wearing them. While it's done within the standard battle system (this section of the game being the only time Locke's in-battle theft works this way), stealing the officer's uniform is required to advance the plot (the merchant's clothes, while useful, can be skipped), meaning that it's not ''just'' gameplay mechanics.

* In Comic [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0649.html #649] of ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', Haley steals her own diamond from [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/ootscast.html the cast page], leaving an "I.O. Me" note in its place.

* Subverted in ''[[Nodwick]]''. The party thief Keebler, returning from a bout of therapy after Yeagar 'accidentally' put a cursed helm on his head that gave him brain damage, combines this trope (he is implied to have stolen the tips from strippers ''during'' a striptease) with a contract that prevents him from being fired as long as no-one in the party can ''prove'' he's stealing from them. The party knows he's going to try to steal the artifact they've looted this time around, but aren't sure how to stop him. Nodwick solves the problem because he has his own impossible skills: he stacks the loot so that the item can't be removed by anyone but a trained henchman without the entire pile of loot collapsing onto them, which not even the thief's impossible theft skills can fox and he's caught red-handed. [[Double Subverted]] in that Keebler still makes off with Nodwick's shirt and pants as he walks off into the sunset, and Nodwick didn't even notice it.

** Decker manages to steal a huge sword from a foe who didn't even know he was carrying it, and was upset that he'd been stuck with a wooden shortsword all this time. This is of course poking fun at the standard RPG steal mechanic.

* The Detective, protagonist of ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]] 2: [[In Name Only]]''. He's confirmed to have stolen a left hand and kidney without their owner noticing.

* From ''[[Cyanide and Happiness]]'', [http://www.explosm.net/comics/412/ there's this guy].

* Violetta from ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has ''twice'' swapped a weapon [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20101101 while someone was in the middle of using it], [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110725 including once from across the room]. She even [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100226 swapped a hostage for a straw dummy pulled out of nowhere] ...also from across the room.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Fairly often used for comical effects in cartoons. Such as ''[[Looney Tunes]]''. Once a character stole an elderly man's dentures ''while he was wearing them''.

* On ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'', [[Depraved Dentist|Dr. Bender]] once stole Chip Skylark's teeth. Unlike the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' example above, they were not dentures, they just ''came out'' as if they were.