Basic Trope: A criminal Anti-Hero who steals money from rich people and gives it to poor people.
- Straight: Larry robs the wealthy elite and gives the spoils to the poor.
- Exaggerated:
- Not only does Larry steal money and possessions, he steals anything he can get his hands on if a rich person owns it. To the point where he manages to escape while dragging a huge bag full of paintings, expensive furniture, and statues that go well beyond what he would need for his goals.
- Larry steals entire estates from the rich, bagging up entire mansions and dumping them outside of working-class villages.
- Downplayed:
- Larry is just a common thief who happens to prefer robbing the rich because they're more likely to have things worth stealing, and he knows a generous sum of money can buy favors from the poor.
- Larry doesn't so much steal from the rich as find ways to coerce them into giving their wealth to the poor.
- Justified:
- Larry is "stealing" money from rich people that is legally the poor people's property, and if the official authorities won't bring about justice, he figures it's up to him.
- Larry is stealing from Bad Boss Bob to give to his grossly underpaid workers, as he believes it's rightfully theirs.
- Inverted:
- Larry steals from the poor and gives to the rich.
- The rich steal from the poor and give the spoils to Larry.
- The poor steal from Larry and give to the rich.
- The rich steal from Larry and give to the poor.
- The poor steal from the rich and give back to Larry.
- Larry enforces the law against theft on the state's behalf.
- Subverted:
- Larry has a reputation for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, but it turns out he's just a common thief whose crimes have been exaggerated.
- Larry tries to steal from the rich and give to the poor ... who are so ungrateful for his efforts that he decides just to start robbing them out of spite.
- Larry's intentionally presenting himself as a Gentleman Thief who robs from the rich and gives to the poor to manipulate them into supporting his plans to seize power. Once he gets what he wants, Larry dispenses with the charade.
- Larry's really just a common thief who indirectly (and unknowingly) helped a poor community because his crimes bankrupted an oppressive landlord.
- Larry claims to be a thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, but he turns out to be just a Dirty Coward who made up all the stories about his supposed accomplishments. When given a chance to do some actual robbing, his true nature is exposed.
- Larry is actually a Robin Hoodlum.
- Double Subverted:
- Larry was just a common thief who robbed indiscriminately until a poor family saved his life, forcing him to think about how much his crimes have been hurting others. He then realizes he can use his skills as a thief for good and to help others rather than himself, inspiring him to begin robbing the rich and giving to the poor.
- Larry gets called out for robbing poor people, has a My God, What Have I Done? moment, and gives back everything he has to his victims.
- After a heart-to-heart conversation with Alice, Larry realizes he enjoyed doing right by the poor and recommits to helping them.
- Larry learns that the landlord is off the community's backs because he's no longer rich, and he is responsible for that, so he resolves to target only rich tyrants from now on.
- Larry was lying about all his exploits until he has to start robbing the rich and giving to the poor for real to keep up appearances, and starts to enjoy helping the poor once he gets the hang of it.
- Averted:
- Larry does not steal anything from anyone.
- Instead of stealing from the rich, Larry figures out a legal loophole that forces the rich to give to the poor.
- Parodied:
- Larry steals so much from the rich that it ends up making them poor, while the poor end up becoming rich.
- The poor and the rich keep swapping places because of Larry's actions, causing him to have to keep switching who he's robbing from and who he's giving to, and struggling to keep track of which one's which.
- Larry steals from the rich so he can sell back the stolen possessions and then use the money to give to the poor. Then he steals them again so he can repeat the process.
- Larry has a magical or magnetic attraction to things rich people own and he literally can't keep himself from going off with them.
- Zig-Zagged: Sometimes, Larry steals from the rich to give to the poor; other times, he steals from the poor to give to the rich.
- Implied: Larry is known to rob mainly rich people, but he doesn't lead an ostentatious lifestyle himself, and everyone else is sure he isn't Secretly Wealthy.
- Invoked: Larry's partner Bob suggests he do this now that he's stolen enough not to be eking out a hand-to-mouth existence.
- Exploited: The State sets a trap for Larry by making an extremely wealthy-looking target to lure him out.
- Defied:
- Larry, Bob, and Alice are burgling a house that's not owned by a superrich person. Larry finds himself tempted by the rich neighbour's Priceless Ming Vase, thinking his poor, elderly parents might like it, but Alice and Bob pull him away to focus on the task at hand.
- Larry is not an agent of the state, but he does not approve of wealth redistribution from anyone to anyone else, whether it's from the richest people to the poorest people or vice versa.
- Deconstructed:
- Larry robs the rich and gives to the poor, only to find that the poor don't know how to use their newfound wealth responsibly and tend to spend it all pretty quickly.
- The state begins aggressively targeting the lower class in an effort to reclaim their stolen property, indiscriminately searching homes and arresting anyone found to possess stolen items.
- Larry's success and the increased wealth of some lower-class people leads to unwanted attention from other thieves. They begin targeting Larry, hoping to make off with his latest big score and swindling the uneducated poor out of the money Larry's given them.
- Larry's actions only put a huge target on his back as the state becomes increasingly determined to put an end to his shenanigans, which in turn makes it harder to rob from the rich and give to the poor without accidentally exposing himself.
- Larry tells himself he's doing this because he likes poor people, but it turns out he's only doing it for the sense of esteem he gets from being treated as a folk hero. Once the plaudits dry up, he stops stealing from wealthy people and thus stops doing good.
- Larry's rich targets are entirely deserving of their wealth, so his actions are immoral as well as illegal.
- It turns out the state doesn't much like having its duties usurped by a Vigilante Man like Larry, so they catch and imprison him.
- Larry and his gang start off hoping to rob from the rich and give to the poor, but once they get their hands on a sizeable fortune it becomes harder to give the money away. They start to value stealing for themselves and getting rich over helping others, and ultimately become petty thieves no better than the people they're robbing.
- Larry and his gang rob the rich and give to the poor, not realizing that the rich they stole from are nice guys trying to use their riches to improve others' lot, while the poor, after being served by Larry and his gang so many times, became overly decadent and eventually use Larry and his gang as their slaves, continuing with the stereotypical "rich people are naturally bastards" as a slander to enable Larry and themselves further.
- Larry robs the rich and gives to the poor, only to discover it's not as black and white as he initially thought. It turns out some of the rich people are okay and Larry's robbery actually hindered their efforts to help the poor, while some of the poor have been grossly abusing the money he's given them.
- Larry robs from the rich, gives to the poor, and eventually there are no more evil rich people as they start fearing Larry, so he runs out of targets. Since he's only good at stealing, Larry can't find another job and becomes a starving, homeless bum.
- Larry's thefts are not motivated by altruism or justice - he's a Pragmatic Villain who knows that the rich have stuff worth stealing, and he distributes the wealth to gain allies and favors with the poor and keep them quiet.
- Reconstructed:
- Larry entrusts his partner Jimmy to show the poor how to save money
- Imprisoning Larry is the final straw that inspires the poor to start a revolution against the rich
- Larry's partner Alice realizes how corrupt the gang has become, so she abandons them to start actually robbing from the rich to give to the poor.
- The poor people are eventually given a well-deserved What the Hell, Hero? and Larry eventually discovers some rich men who are actually abusing the system for their benefits. He starts robbing these corrupt rich men, but avoids robbing the nice rich men after realizing their true nature. Then, he gives to the poor who are actually genuinely suffering and not hiding behind the stereotype that protects them (or those who saw the error of their ways of being a good poor people), while leaving the unrepentant poor people to suffer their Dirty Coward ways.
- One of the poor men that he helped, who has become rich in the meantime, approached Larry and acknowledged his ways of stealing and promises him that he could give Larry a good job despite being only good at stealing. Larry is then promoted to a chief of security guard, teaching men on how to prevent theft (by pure thieves not inspired by Robin Hood) based on his experience as a thief and what he would do to avoid getting caught.
I stole the main page from the rich for the benefit of the poor, Just Like Robin Hood!
