"The Thief" tells the tragic story of a soldier enamoured with life and with a girl as disquieting and wayward as she is beautiful. Through masterful storytelling within a story, Guy de Maupassant portrays a fiery and passionate romance, initiated in secrecy and heartbreakingly brought to light, when on one dark, fateful evening, the soldier is mistaken for a thief. With "The Thief", Maupassant calls upon the reader to question the nature of crime, the appropriateness of juridical punishment in nineteenth-century France, and the willingness to sacrifice everything in the name of love.