History Main / TheFagin

* Provost from ''Comicbook/{{Runaways}}''

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* The original is Fagin of ''Literature/OliverTwist''.

* ''Series/TheEqualizer''. One case involved a mother who was worried her son was being draw into crime. Turns out this trope was involved, with a criminal using the children for the high risk part of the theft. [=McCall=] handles the problem by discrediting TheFagin in the eyes of his children.

* Creator/TerranceDicks wrote a children's series called ''The Baker Street Irregulars'' about a [[KidDetective group of school children who solve crimes]]. In "The Case of the Crooked Kids", they encounter a literal "school for criminals".

* ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'': This is the octopus' side job.
* Bart (played by Creator/BobHoskins) from ''Film/DannyTheDog'' (a.k.a. ''Unleashed'') is a revolting horror of a "man" who raised a Chinese boy to manhood (played by Creator/JetLi) ''as an attack dog'' to help him kill and extort money in Glasgow, London.

* Dutch Van Der Linde of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and its {{Prequel}} ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' took protagonists John Marston and Arthur Morgan into his gang alongside his partner-in-crime Hosea Matthews when they were street urchins and proceeded to raise them as his own son, teaching them to read and write as well as train them as outlaws who would be completely loyal to him.

* In ''[[Literature/GentlemanBastard The Lies of Locke Lamora]]'', Locke is raised by both versions as a child:

* In ''[[Literature/GentlemanBastard The Lies of Locke Lamora]]'', Locke encounters both versions as a child. The first criminal who took him in, the Thiefmaker, was more of the evil version, but he ends up selling Locke to Father Chains, who is very clearly inspired by the positive takes on Fagin.

* The version of Fagin in the Disney film ''Disney/OliverAndCompany'' does this with stray animals, mostly dogs. He takes them in and is very kind to them, but he needs them to help him with minor crimes in order to avoid the wrath of CorruptCorporateExecutive Bill Sykes.

* Yondu, from ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', leads a band of SpacePirates known as the Ravagers, and abducts the young Peter Quill from Earth - first to [[ImAHumanitarian eat him]], but then to raise him as one of his own. [[spoiler:In a lighter take on this trope than most, it's revealed he was hired to bring Peter to his alien father, and decided to spare the kid the experience of being raised by "a jackass".]]

Sometimes, just sometimes, The Fagin may [[EvilVirtues actually ''love'']] the children who work for him like a father, and there are few things scarier than a PapaWolf Fagin, who is ''not'' above using his extensive underworld connections to absolutely torture to death those who harm his children.

The trope is named after Fagin, a character from Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/OliverTwist'' who is so associated with this trope that his name is actually next to it in the dictionary. He even fulfils both interpretations, depending on the media he's in.

* Comicbook/{{Gambit}} was once part of a group of street urchins actually known as Fagin's Mob, which was run by the offspring of an illicit relationship between a member of the Thieves Guild and a member of the Assassin's Guild.
* ''Comicbook/RedSonja'': As a teenaged thief, Sonja worked for one named Jubal.

* The French short film ''Le Mozart des pickpockets (2006)'' has two unlucky crooks, Richard and Philippe, who get more or less stuck with a little deaf immigrant boy. Richard soon grows attached to the kid and begins to teach him reading, while Philippe begrudges Richard's insistence that they take care of him... until it turns out by chance that the boy is an exceptionally gifted pickpocket.

* ''[[Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths The Doctrine of Labyrinths]]'' has Keepers, people who train children under their care to steal, and worse. Margot is the more sympathetic type; most thief-keepers, including Kolkhis and the unnamed one who raised Felix, are considerably [[BlackAndGrayMorality nastier]].
* Carroty Kate in Julie Hearn's novel ''Ivy'', who takes in the titular character and trains her to work as a 'skinner', luring other children into secluded areas and stripping them of their clothing, which is later sold.

* Creator/TerranceDicks wrote a childrens series called ''The Baker Street Irregulars'' about a [[KidDetective group of school children who solve crimes]]. In "The Case of the Crooked Kids", they encounter a literal "school for criminals".

* In ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' Parker's mentor is one. He took Parker in and made her steal for him as well as trained her as his 'legacy'-the best thief in the world. He also displays some of the {{Papa Wolf}} tendencies, calling Parker 'kiddo' and referring to himself as Parker's father. However, the last one is deconstructed: he never took the young Parker home to his white picket fence family, fearing she won't fit in, because even the younger Parker was a sort of {{Emotionless Girl}}.

* In ''Series/{{Neverland}}'', Creator/{{Syfy}}'s miniseries reimagining / OriginStory for ''Literature/PeterPan'', Hook started out as one of these in London's East End, with Peter and the future Lost Boys being the children in question.

* Clare Novak, daughter of Castiel's vessel on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' falls in with one of these named Randy. He and some guys threatening him all wind up getting {{kick| the son of a bitch}}ed pretty hard by Dean.
** The young hunter Krissy Chambers along with two other kids, Josephine and Aiden, were adopted by a man named Victor when their families were killed by vampires. Victor actually ordered their families' murders, so he could gain their trust by satisfying their desire for revenge and continue to train them to be the ultimate next generation of hunters.
* A RareFemaleExample in the person of the inmate Vee from ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' who used to pick up unwanted children from streets and use them in her drug dealing business. As another inmate put it perfectly:

* As revealed in ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'' "...And the Christmas Thief". Ezekiel was raised by a female version along with three adoptive sisters. They're almost portrayed as following a ReligionOfEvil, celebrating "Thankstaking" by stealing gifts in honour of [[BadSanta Santa's evil brother]], the Saint of Thieves.[[note]]A warped reinterpretation of St Nicholas being the patron of ''penitent'' thieves.[[/note]] However, she's also shown as a petty shoplifter, completely unconnected to the society of master thieves and supercriminals Ezekiel became part of, and therefore totally unaware he has a reputation as the greatest thief in the world. She knows he's reformed, but assumed that was because he was just no good at it. Despite this, she does seem to be the "good" kind; at the end of the episode, Ezekiel says he always knew she loved them, and greed and larceny weren't the only things he learned from her.
* ''Series/MidnightCaller'': Sly, an abandoned teenager, is taken in by a man named Harry who lives in a mansion with his gang of teenaged thieves. He has his "family" do all his work for him, including selling the merchandise, so nothing can be traced back to him. [[spoiler:Sly ends up turning him in to the police after he is beaten for messing up a car theft.]]

* An article in ''Pyramid'' magazine giving worked examples for ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Social Engineering: Back to School'' includes Mistress Blake's Establishment as one of the sample schools. Sarah Brake was a Regency burglar who now trains three to six apprentices and expects them to earn their keep by demonstrating their skills. The article notes that ''Literature/OliverTwist'' hasn't been written yet, so calling her a "fagin" would be anachronistic, and instead uses the word "kidsman". She cares enough about her charges to count as a Patron, but has Minimal Involvement because she can't be seen to be connected.

* Played with with Sully from ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'', he quasi-adopted the protagonist Nate when he was fifteen and taught him treasure hunting. However Nate’s biological mom was [[InTheBlood one as well]] and he learned a lot from her before her death. Sully also does genuinely love Nate as his own and is upset with him when he comes out of retirement in ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'' . All he wanted for Nate was to marry a nice girl and live a normal life and he thinks Nate is throwing it away.

* The version of Fagin in the Disney film ''Disney/OliverAndCompany'' does this with animals.

* Fagin was partly based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikey_Solomon Isaac "Ikey" Solomon]], who was at least rumored to be a "kidsman" (apparently, that's the "technical" term for this type of criminal), although he was mostly a very successful fence. He had also made a pretty impressive escape from Newgate Prison and British authorities. His [[http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18270712-45-defend345&div=t18270712-45#highlight father Henry]] was also this-he taught his son the trade of fencing stolen goods.
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* If one views Dutch Van Der Linde from ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and its {{Prequel}} ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' as being EvilAllAlong, he’s one of these.

* ''FaginTheJew'' is a sympathetic retelling of Fagin's story from Fagin's point of view by Creator/WillEisner.

* Bart (played by BobHoskins) from ''Film/DannyTheDog'' (a.k.a. ''Unleashed'') is a revolting horror of a "man" who raised a Chinese boy to manhood (played by Creator/JetLi) ''as an attack dog'' to help him kill and extort money in Glasgow, London.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' features the Tantalus gang, led by a boisterous, bearded PettingZooPerson named Baku. It's stated outright that he adopted the hero after finding him abandoned near the docks as a child, raised him and taught him to steal and perform on the stage; and it's implied that the rest of the gang may have been similarly recruited. Baku will [[ToughLove knock you cross-eyed]] if you betray him...but eidolons help anyone who tries to [[PapaWolf hurt his gang]].

* [[PunnyName Fay Gunn]] is the most notable of several from the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comics because Jason Todd (the second Robin) briefly worked for her after Batman [[NiceJobBreakingItHero placed him in her care]].

** Subverted in one ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' short story: Batman ''thinks'' the Penguin is kidnapping kids from troubled backgrounds to lead them into a life of crime. He's actually giving them a decent education and a pleasant childhood so they can grow up to be outstanding members of society ... who owe him a huge favor.

* This is the relationship between ComicBook/{{Diabolik}} and King, as the latter was already a well-affirmed criminal mastermind before the infant that would grow up to become Diabolik was saved from a shipwreck and trained into thieving. A later story revealed he had a very good reason for this, but both King and the only other man who knew have been killed by Diabolik himself in separate occasion, and [[SequelHook nobody knows where King hid the papers that prompted him to take Diabolik in]].