This can happen in real life, but pickpocketing in the real world is usually more complicated than how this trope is typically portrayed in fiction. If the stolen item was something important to the plot, you can be certain that the protagonist and the thief will meet again later sometime after discovering the loss of his missing item, having deciphered what exactly happened. If he is a child, you can expect him to be a Street Urchin. To make it even easier, the thief tends to look shady or untrustworthy in general. In general, the scene is played off to be as seemingly insignificant an event as possible. The thief doesn't give his name, doesn't try to engage in any extended conversation with the victim, and generally tries to get away from his mark as quickly as possible. The thief doesn't make a big deal about bumping into the protagonist.The same goes for any of his traveling companions. The victim tends to brush off the encounter and assumes that it happened for no reason.The thief tends to have a disproportionate amount of screentime/attention dedicated to him/her for such a brief moment.There are a couple signals that indicate this trope: In nearly every such case, it is almost guaranteed that the colliding stranger introduced in this scene is a pickpocket at work. There are times though when someone will bump into the protagonist, and despite a suspicious amount of attention being given to the moment, the protagonist will play off the event as nothing, and little further attention is given to the collision even though it obviously happened for a reason. What these events all have in common, however, is that it is usually made apparent right away why the collision took place. This is usually accomplished by a quick "Sorry" and brisk walk away from the protagonist.īumping into someone in fiction can indicate a wide range of events, from an early romance, to introducing a clumsy character to showing that the new character is simply prone to shoving people out of the way. The marking quality of this type of encounter is that the thief usually tries to make as small a deal about bumping into the victim as possible, hurrying away before the mark realizes what happened. The theory goes that a brief, seemingly harmless touch presents all the opportunity a skilled thief needs in order to take what he wants off an unwitting target. In short, a thief pickpockets something off of someone, disguising the act as an accidental bump on the street. The Doctor, Doctor Who, "The Beast Below"
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