Basic Trope: A character (often some sort of crook themselves) steals from fellow criminals.
- Straight: Jacob, instead of robbing the innocent, targets mostly mob dealers and other petty criminals.
- Exaggerated: Every person Jacob steals from has had some kind of run-in with the law, even if it's just an unpaid parking ticket.
- Downplayed:
- When given the option, Jacob tends to go for the guilty party. Otherwise, he'll steal from whoever's around.
- Jacob is a criminal fence who rips off the people who sell him stolen goods.
- Justified:
- Jacob is interested in the finer things in life, and crooks tend to have the best swag.
- Jacob's victims can't report the theft, it was never legally theirs.
- Inverted: Given his m.o., the innocent are Jacob's bread and butter.
- Subverted: After getting a load of what his competitors do to their enemies, Jacob decides to give them a wide berth.
- Double Subverted: ...all while he undergoes Training from Hell to become the ultimate badass so he can steal from them without being killed or maimed.
- Parodied: Jacob is in essence a modern-day Robin Hood, albeit without the whole "giving to the poor" angle.
- Zig-Zagged: Before he elected to steal from a bunch of crooks, Jacob was just another law-abiding citizen. Now that he's "in the game", so to speak, he's poised to become immured in the lifestyle. Knowing this, he does his best to return the items, but when they have none of it, he makes a quick escape with the goods in tow.
- Averted: Jacob
targets both sides of the law. The only common denominator for his actions is money. - Enforced: For whatever reason, Jacob has a mental block against stealing from straight-and-narrow folk.
- Lampshaded: Pretty much everyone Jacob interacts with is a thief of some kind.
- Invoked: Jacob has had no luck in stealing by himself, so he reasons that "borrowing" from a more successful outfit is the way to go.
- Exploited: Most of Jacob's marks are a little on the dim side, making them the best targets.
- Defied: Knowing from bitter experience that it only causes grief, Jacob swears off stealing from his fellow criminals.
- Discussed: Jacob reasons to himself that targeting criminals is a little bit better than innocent people. He might be dishonest, but he's not totally unscrupulous.
- Conversed: "How does a guy who steals from crooks for a living manage to stay in one piece for so long?"
- Deconstructed:
- Ripping off people who commit horrible acts of violence for a living is a pretty stupid move to say the least. Jacob finds this out the hard way when a gang he's defrauded tracks him down and introduces his hand to a claw hammer.
- The market for criminal activity Jacob lives in is a bit oversaturated, making it difficult for him to hold onto his own spoils for very long.
- Reconstructed:
- Jacob's status as an out-of-towner provides an easy means of escape from any retribution.
- A lot of crooks means a lot of business for someone who steals from crooks, which makes Jacob happy regardless.
- Implied: Jacob mugs a sketchy person, who hands over several wallets.
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