10. Stealing Stolen Goods Is Also Theft

When crops are harvested in autumn fields, field mice steal some grains and bury them in their burrows as food for the winter. As winter approaches, some people deliberately search for mouse burrows, dig out the stored grains, and take them home—a single burrow may yield several jin or even ten jin of grain. When the mice return to find their food gone, some despair and commit suicide; otherwise, they would starve without food during winter. Is digging up and taking the mice's grain an act of stealing?

Stealing, by definition, means taking without permission—secretly removing something without the owner's consent, transferring it to one's own possession or control. The owner must be a sentient being, and the thief must act with a stealing mentality, proactively taking the item through certain expedient means, ultimately causing the item to leave the owner and arrive at the thief's location, thereby successfully possessing the stolen goods.

The mice's behavior constitutes theft: first, they possess a stealing mentality, taking the grain secretly without being noticed; second, they use their mouths to carry it away, employing expedient means; third, the grain leaves the field and is placed in their burrows, becoming their property. Since this is theft, the stolen grain must rightfully belong to the mice—otherwise, it would not be considered theft, and the act of stealing would not be established.

If humans then dig up the grain from the mouse burrows, this constitutes stealing the mice's property. If the mice had not stolen the grain but were merely storing it for humans, then humans digging it up would not be stealing from the mice but from others.

Similarly, secretly taking items stolen by a thief is also an act of theft. Because the thief, through certain expedient means, successfully moved the item to their own location, becoming its new owner—if ownership had not changed, the theft would not be established. When someone else then secretly takes the thief's goods, employing certain expedient means to successfully move the item to their own location and become the new owner, this act constitutes theft. However, if there is a different motivation—not an intent to possess the thief's property—then it may not necessarily be theft.