How can a thief be good?

It’s debatable whether you consider this “good” or not, but he could be a Robin Hood type who steals from people who already have more than enough to help people who don’t.

@Mariah Like Aladdin?

Yeah.

Hmm… I guess it would depend on what the thief steals, and what/who he does it for. My favorite all-time fictional thief would have to be Simon Templar from The Saint :-) However, would I want to be hit by a thief? Not really…

That word “good” is tricky. Before the D&D elaboration, I took the question as about expertise rather than ethics.

Because she stole my heart for life.

I don’t really like classes and alignments, but if pressed, I would consult Dennis Moore as a role model.

I like all of the above answers—especially a Robin Hood type of character for fantasy role playing.

A thief in a role playing game is someone with a skill—not necessarily a criminal or acting, practicing thief. Thieving skills can be used in other ways in role playing adventure scenarios.

But any character without means or qualifications for employment, especially one in a far country, exile, or far from home, might have to steal for survival or maintain an appearance of normalcy, economics wise.

The justification would probably be that it is necessary due to temporary circumstances and that they are nonetheless serving a better purpose. Ethically it would be best to steal from where it would do the least harm or draw the least attention—or stealing from unethical persons such as the mafia, gangs, bandits, dishonest politicians, or other corrupt individuals.

An interesting twist would be someone who IS basically good but feels burnt out from a thankless struggle or lack of funds—or someone whose conscience has eroded to the point that they feel justified even though they are actually doing something wrong or criminal.

@Yellowdog , Has there ever been a criminal who did not think that his acts are justifiable? How else could he commit them?

Read Les Miserables.

LostInParadise: I suspect that many criminals don’t care if their acts are justifiable or not.

To be amoral in real life, or what Dungeons and Dragons type games would classify as “Chaotic”—people have opted to live outside the morals, morays and conventions of society and merely do what they need or want to do. They don’t justify anything.

Some crimes are committed on impulse and may be regretted later, but I think that most lifelong thieves have a way of justifying to themselves what they do. They may say that robbing a bank does not have much of an effect on the population, or they may say that corporations act criminally to make so much money, so why shouldn’t they be able to do it. I think that, as nutty as some of the explanations may be, there usually is some justification.

If someone steals my iPhone at a grocery store checkout, I don’t think the thief justifies their act. Rather, they have no feeling whatsoever or even feel somewhat empowered at their act.