History Main / NobleShoplifter

* In ''WesternAnimation/BotsMaster'' episode "Enter the Ninjzz", Blitzy, Cook, and Doc do this while stealing from a supermarket. Unfortunately, when Blitzy opens a register to load the money, she ends up setting off an alarm.

* A variation in ''VideoGame/UltimaIV'': all of the shopkeepers who sell magical reagents are present at the shops, but also all happen to be blind. The player has the option of buying as many reagents as they want and paying only 1 gp, but due to the virtue system present in the game, cheating the reagents woman results in a hit to Honesty and Honor, so you're really encouraged to pay full price to trained parrot. The prices are laid out and you can take what you want. Paying extra, exact price, less, or not at all determines if you make the bird's day, have him thank you, call you a cheapskate, or outright attack you respectively. If you steal from him and show up later as a wolf (to whom he can actually speak fluently), he laments that his boss punished ''him'' for it as well. On the flipside, you're also free to just give him some cash without taking anything; you get nothing from it [[VideoGameCaringPotential other than some very genuine and happy gratitude]].

* A variation in ''VideoGame/UltimaIV'': all of the shopkeepers who sell magical reagents are present at the shops, but also all happen to be blind. The player has the option of buying as many reagents as they want and paying only 1 gp, but due to the virtue system present in the game, cheating the reagents woman results in a hit to Honesty and Honor, so you're really encouraged to pay full price to stay virtuous.

This situation can cause a moral quandary for people who have a strict code of honor. While most of the characters depicted will have little issues with doing what they need to get by, the NobleShoplifter will struggle with the decision to steal from someone who may or may not be returning for their property at some point. While these characters are often shown to initially struggle with the decision, they will usually come up with a simple solution: they leave behind money or some other valuables that cover the cost of whatever they take. This makes the act less like "stealing" in the mind of the NobleShoplifter, and more "buying without the previous owner's knowledge".

It is not uncommon for the NobleShoplifter's companions to give him or her a hard time about it, arguing that the former owners are very likely dead and that priority should be given to the living. They may also argue that there is nothing to stop other groups of scavengers from taking the valuables the NobleShoplifter leaves behind... in fact, a more unscrupulous member of the NobleShoplifter's own party may find an excuse to backtrack and do exactly that.

This trope is primarily used to portray the moral fiber of a character. In works where the NobleShoplifter is displayed in a positive light, this reflects that they are the kind of person who will do the right thing, regardless of the fact that there are no negative consequences to giving in to the impulse to just take what they need. Other works may serve as a contrast, framing the NobleShoplifter as LawfulStupid while their peers are simply being pragmatic given the circumstances.

* In ''GreenArrow: City Walls'', although the city is without power and looting is rampant, GA insists that his people leave payment whenever they take food or weapons from a store.

Contrast DisasterScavengers, PlanetLooters and GentlemanThief. The NobleShoplifter is rarely seen in a ScavengerWorld, as those settings are usually far beyond the point where original ownership matters.

* In ''{{Goblins}}'', [[ThePaladin Big Ears]] insists that Thaco leaves money for the food he steals. In this case, the reason he can't shop normally is because he's a goblin in a city where goblins are feared.

* A similar situation is found in ''Videogame/{{Earthbound}}''. In [[CrapsaccharineWorld Happy Valley]], there's a food cart with a sign saying they trust you to take what you need and leave the money. However, in this case, the player ''does'' have the option to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential leave without paying]], so this trope depends on the player.

* A similar situation is found in ''{{Earthbound}}''. In [[CrapsaccharineWorld Happy Valley]], there's a food cart with a sign saying they trust you to take what you need and leave the money. However, in this case, the player ''does'' have the option to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential leave without paying]], so this trope depends on the player.
* Mario in ''SuperMarioRPG''. When the Mushroom Kingdom is under attack, the item shopkeeper can be found cowering in the back of the shop, with a sign on the counter saying to take what you want and leave the money. Reading it allows you to buy items as if the shopkeeper was there, with no option to leave without paying.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', Fei does this at a shop in Nisan at a point in the game where the town has been evacuated due to threats of an invasion.

* Fei (or was it Bart?) in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. IIRC, it happened when the capitol of Fatima was evacuated.

* A variant occurs in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''. Convinced that the impending solar eclipse will cause the end of the world, Gumball, Darwin, and Richard raid the local grocery store for supplies...with every intention of paying, of course, but the lines are obscene and the self-checkout refuses to behave. In the end, they charge out the door with a cart full of groceries and throw a fistful of money in the pursuing security guard's face.

* This happens in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{CodenameKidsNextDoor'' when Number 2 has to go to the grocery store, but it's already closed. He picks up the items he needs and leaves money behind, but still gets accused of trying to steal.

* A variant occurs in one episode of ''TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''. Convinced that the impending solar eclipse will cause the end of the world, Gumball, Darwin, and Richard raid the local grocery store for supplies...with every intention of paying, of course, but the lines are obscene and the self-checkout refuses to behave. In the end, they charge out the door with a cart full of groceries and throw a fistful of money in the pursuing security guard's face.

* This happens in an episode of ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'' when Number 2 has to go to the grocery store, but it's already closed. He picks up the items he needs and leaves money behind, but still gets accused of trying to steal.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* One of the triggers for the French Revolution was the government removing economic controls that kept the price of a loaf of bread low. Seeing the price of their staple foodstuff rocket overnight - to more than the average daily wage - the Parisian people took matters into their own hands and took over bakeries and flour-millers by force. However, by popular consent, they didn't just steal the bread: they very scrupulously distributed it to the people, who left behind the pre-inflationary price of seven sous per loaf, which they thought was a fair price. It was only when the Army was called in to quell the bread riots and summarily hang "ringleaders" that people started grabbing what they could and running. And so a revolution started...not over principles of liberty, equality and brotherhood, but over something as basic and important as a subsistence diet.

* Inverted at one point on Series/TheWalkingDead - an abandoned pharmacy that two characters scavenge has a sign (implied to have been left by the original owner) telling survivors they are welcome to take whatever they need.

* In ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk'' live action TV series, David Banner often did things like steal pants when necessary after changing back from the Hulk, but left money behind.
** But... [[FridgeLogic where does he keep his wallet]]? On second thought, [[AssShove never mind]].
* On ''{{Castle}}'', the eponymous Castle's daughter is so noble that she pays when her ''friends'' shoplift.

* One episode of ''{{Bones}}'', Booth makes a comment that "you gotta be bad sometimes to be good," meaning sometimes even the best people need to cut loose and do something "bad". Toward the end of the episode, while having dinner at the Founding Fathers, Brennan admits that she wants to try doing something "bad". Booth suggests that they skip out of the cafe without paying for their dinner and Brennan agrees. While she rushes for the door, Booth quietly leaves a few folded bills on the counter without telling her.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Hermione does this at least once in the book, though it isn't really shoplifting then, because she drops the money into the open till from under the cloak.

In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Hermione does this at least once in the book, though it isn't really shoplifting then, because she drops the money into the open till from under the cloak.

* Captain Carrot in ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' who insists on leaving money behind when he takes food from isolated farmhouses whilst trailing a werewolf pack into the mountains. The houses themselves are not actually unoccupied, it's just that Carrot looks scary so the owners tend to hide when he approaches and acting as a NobleShoplifter is easier than dragging them out and buying it normally.
** Another variant from Literature/{{Discworld}}, werewolf Angua sometimes kills chickens during her "time of the month," but always remembers where she's been and leaves money under the door. She's a strict vegetarian the rest of the time.
* From the second book of the ''HisDarkMaterials'' series, ''The Subtle Knife'':

* Jack Fleming from ''TheVampireFiles'' does this when he needs new clothes, as he can't visit stores during daytime business hours and would cast no reflection in the mirrors of a tailor's shop. So he enters at night, takes what he needs off the rack, and leaves money on the counter.

* ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', after gamboling through a deserted greengrocer's, the heroes leave behind a credit card.
* In ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Hermione keeps doing this while the trio are on the run.
** She does this at least once in the book as well, though it isn't really shoplifting then, because she drops the money into the open till from under the cloak.
* After the three runaways from ''OBrotherWhereArtThou'' swipe a pie left cooling on someone's windowsill, Delmar leaves $5 under a rock on the sill as payment.
* In ''PanicInYearZero'' the family comes to a gas station where the owner is taking advantage of the disaster to charge an outrageous ([[HarsherInHindsight for the time]]) price for gasoline. After trying and failing to reason with him, Harry knocks him out, takes the gas, and leaves enough money to pay for the gas at what he considers a fair price.

* A variation occurs in a [[BatmanNoMansLand story]] that Alfred relates about Thomas Wayne while [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce]] is facing a dilemma, about how he broke into a pharmacy to get drugs to treat a sick child from an impoverished family, and left behind money with an explaining note. This leads to a series of further payments by the increasingly extortionate pharmacist, that only ends when he has Alfred impersonate a police officer in order to recover the note.

-->'''Elan's Note:''' Sorry we stole from you [[hottip:*:twice]]. It was for [[hottip:*:really]] good cause.

* In ''Series/VanPires'', the Motor-Vators in their transformed states need gasoline just as much as the Van-Pires. They make a point of leaving behind money to cover the gasoline they take from gas stations.