History Main / RobbingTheDead

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The humour of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8228515/1/ Go Though His Pockets and Look For Loose Change]]'' is based on [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Naruto Uzumaki]] having this mentality (like most people from a ninja clan, especially the elders) and having to deal with Sakura, who doesn't (like civilians and ninja from a civilian family).

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''Film/Bones2001:'' When the main characters find Jimmy's body in the basement of the new nightclub, Maurice takes his diamond ring after the others leave, breaking off one of his skeletal fingers in the process.

* On the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** Nobby Nobbs was discharged from Ankh-Morpork's army because he spent all his time scrounging the dead of either side, mostly for boots. He learned the 'trade' from his own (supposed) father who once stayed sober long enough to make him some toy soldiers with little boots to steal.
** One of the explorers listed in ''The Discworld Mapp'' was a member of the Royal Sto Plains Riflers, famed for their bravery in battle - entirely with a view to ensuring there were plenty of boots and gold teeth to collect afterward. Some of them entered battle armed with nothing except shoehorns and pliers.
*** Since [[FantasyGunControl personal firearms are unknown on the Disc]] after [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup the Gonne]] was destroyed in ''Literature/MenAtArms'', we can assume that the "Sto Plains Riflers" were [[StealthPun named for how they would rifle through the possessions of the dead.]]

--->'''Sacharissa''': William, do you realize you are robbing a corpse?\\
'''William''': (''absently'') Good. Best time.

** Voldemort steals the Elder Wand from [[spoiler: Dumbledore's tomb]] in the last book of the series. [[spoiler: This backfires ''epically''.]]

[[folder:Myth and Legend]]

[[folder:Religion]]
* In 2nd Samuel from Literature/TheBible, David meets an Amalekite who brings with him the personal effects of King Saul after he has fallen in battle with the Philistines. At the end of 1st Samuel, King Saul is so badly wounded that he calls his shield bearer to slay him, but since the shield bearer refused, Saul fell upon his own sword and died, and so also did his shield bearer. [[UnreliableNarrator The Amalekite, however, tells the story differently]], saying that he met King Saul while he was still alive but wounded from battle, and was personally asked by the king to kill him, so he did and took his personal effects, hoping that he would get something from the loot he had taken. The Amalekite does get rewarded, though -- with getting killed by David for testifying by his own mouth that he had killed "the Lord's anointed".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Haley loots [[spoiler:Zz'dtri]]'s corpse. Oddly enough, given the RPGMechanicsVerse, this trope does not appear more often, though, given the amount of money Haley acquires in the dungeon crawl, she may have done it off-stage.

* ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'':
** After [[http://www.screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-07-24 Frohman and several other Resistance fighters get separated from Gordon Freeman following a hopper mine]], Frohman complains that Freeman simply left them to die, which causes one of the other fighters to finally have enough of his Freeman-bashing and pull his gun on Frohman... only to discover Freeman assumed they were dead, stole all of their ammo, and ''then'' left them to die.
** The [[AltText notes]] for that comic go into a discussion on whether stealing ammo and supplies from dead allies without actually checking whether they're dead [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation makes them a dickweed]]. He comes to the conclusion it mostly comes down to how one chooses to play, and then shares an anecdote of his own from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' where he looted the corpse of an ally who fell in battle for gear that was better than what he already had, died before he could save, redid the battle wherein that ally was wounded but survived, and decided that meant it was okay to bludgeon him to death and steal his gear again.
* ''{{Webcomic/Unsounded}}'': Minnow is first encountered going through the pockets and pouches of dead soldiers on the riverside.

** In "To Cut A Woman's Hair", [[KidHero Finn]] needs to find princess hair to save his best friend from an evil, balding witch. He winds up in a cemetery and finds a grave belonging to "Princess Beautiful," whom he digs up.
-->''Hey, that's perfect! [[LampshadeHanging And... sort of macabre...]] oh well.''

-->'''Finn:''' Jake! You looted?! That's bad, man! You're supposed to be Good Cop.\\

* ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' had a storyline where Bob, the murderhobo, brought in his Dad, who thought RPGs were a bad influence, to play in a western themed game who found it appalling that the players were looting the corpses of slain enemies since John Wayne wouldn't do that.

* ''Video/FableI'': An undead epidemic at Lychfield Graveyard turns out to have been set off when the gravekeeper stole a legendary Hero's battle gear from his tomb to sell. The player character needs to find and return the pieces to [[QuietingTheUnquietDead lay him back to rest]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "Dead Man's Shoes". A derelict steals a pair of shoes from a corpse. The shoes give him the personality of the dead man while he's wearing them.

* ''Series/Blackadder Goes Forth'': Referenced in "Coproral Punishment", at the end of a scene portraying Edmund's firing squad as a nice bunch of lads who are just doing their job and are only vaguely aware that he might not appreciate it, to the extent that they think it's appropriate to visit him the night before, just to say hello. Somewhat subverting this image is that, as they leave his cell, one of them says "The one who hits closest to the mole gets his gold fillings."

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' soldiers and even common folk are routinely looted for supplies. Most notably The Second Sons, a mercenary army, has at least two wagons full of weapons and armor scavenged from battlefield corpses. The [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Viking expys]] of the Iron Islands also a phrase, "paying the iron price", which refers to taking something from an enemy they killed - therefore, they paid for it with the iron of a sword, as opposed to "paying the gold price", which is paying with coins (which they deride). While they're on the run in the Riverlands, [[KnightInSourArmor Sandor Clegane]] shows [[PrincessInRags Arya Stark]] where to look to find hidden money after first showing her how to MercyKill the man.

* ''VideoGame/CastleWolfenstein''. You can take various items from the bodies of guards you've killed. Which items are available depends on the game.
** Original: keys.
** ''Beyond VideoGame/CastleWolfenstein'': marks (money), passes.

* In the ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode "Taking the Stone", Rygel steals a particularly large stash of goods found in a tomb on an ancient royal burial planet--and soon regrets it. There's also a RunningGag of his trying to rob Crichton every time he thinks he's dead ([[DeathIsCheap which is often]]).

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "Dead Man's Shoes". A derelict steals a pair of shoes from a corpse. The shoes give him the personality of the dead man while he's wearing them.
* On ''Series/PushingDaisies'':
** Dwight Dixon robs Chuck's father's grave in order to get his gold pocket watch.
** In the first season episodes "Pie-lette" and "The Fun in Funeral" has the Schatz brothers, who own a funeral home, and regularly steal valuables from corpses.

* In the second season of ''Series/{{Hex}}'', the ghostly Thelma discovers that she isn't trapped eternally in the dress that she wore when she was murdered, but can change clothes if she steals them from dead bodies.

* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'': Al Capone eats an apple from Sixtus D'Alessio's grocery bag after killing him.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': Dexter kills a pedophile who was stalking his girlfriend's daughter in his home. While he was dragging his corpse out, he remembers a phone call from his girlfriend who asked him to pick up some milk for the kids. So he steals a carton of milk from his victim's fridge.
* ''Series/BreakingBad'': After killing a Los Pollos Hermanos truck driver, Gaff and his crew of cartel buttonmen casually eat the driver's lunch while waiting for the remaining guards to suffocate on the carbon monoxide fumes they are pumping into the trailer. Punctuated with a very dark PetTheDog moment where Gaff gives an associate the driver's sandwich from the lunchbox, settling for a simple apple for himself.

* ''Series/DeadMansGun'': "Buryin' Sam" centres on a pair of unscrupulous {{Undertaker}}s who steal anything of value on their clients before burying them.

* Zig-zagged in ''Hitman'' series: as a core gameplay mechanic, the player needs to take away the clothes from a person he pacified or killed. However, if the downed [=NPC=] is a female or a civilian, he's unallowed to do so.

* In ''Film/LeftForDead'', Goldie extracts the gold teeth from the dead bounty hunter. She later tries to do the same thing with supposed corpse of BigBad Mobius Lockhart. Big mistake.

* ''Film/TheSeventhSeal'': Raval is a Crusade-era seminary student [[FaithHeelTurn turned criminal]] who now robs the bodies of plague victims, to say nothing of [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil what he does]] to the living. By the end of the film, [[spoiler:he's caught the plague himself and [[DyingAlone died alone]].]]

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'': Every Ork engages in this, though they're more interested in teef and weapons than gold (which isn't to say they won't take shiny things). Lootas are Orks who specialize in, well, looting, and have some of the biggest guns around. Chaos forces are more interested in desecrating the dead and Tyranids in eating them.