Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren — Loved this book as a kid. Two feuding robber clans, capable of both great humor and great cruelty, and their robber children.

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke — Scipio uses his thieving to help fellow children in need, and is particularly distinctive in that he mostly steals from himself. 😉

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak — What better thing could there be to steal than books? Especially when it’s through those books that the thief learns how to read, and then write her own story.

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas — Conn’s thieving ways get him into heaps of trouble, but from his charmingly straight-forward narrative, you can’t help seeing he always means well.

The Attolia series by Megan Whalen Turner — Last but far from least–I adore these books. Mostly because of Eugenides, the first book’s titular Thief, who is probably the most skilled thief ever written and fantastically clever in many other ways as well.

Your favorite literary thieves? Share!