"If one wants to steal, dear boy," said the pastor, "then for God's sake one should never steal from the rich. A rich man has a hundred peats, and then suddenly he has only ninety-nine left: one of them has been stolen. He won't forget that even on his deathbed. A poor man has only one peat and is just as poor if it's stolen; and by the next day he has forgotten all about it. The wealthy man will inevitably get you into trouble if you steal from him; the poor man doesn't even bother to mention it. That's why all genuine thieves have the good sense to steal from the poor. The only really dangerous thing to do in Iceland is to steal from the rich, and the only really profitable thing to do in Iceland is to steal from the poor, dear boy."
- from World Light by one of the great socialist novelists, Halldór Laxness; written in 1938















