Chi ruba il mantello al suo prossimo, per il solito muore senza camicia

“Chi ruba il mantello al suo prossimo, per il solito muore senza camicia” is a proverb about the self-defeating consequences of theft: someone who takes another person’s cloak will, in the end, be left without even a shirt. Pinocchio invokes it as he and Geppetto leave, turning a familiar moral warning into a rebuke to those they are leaving behind.

Wording and Meaning

The proverb sets another person’s cloak against the thief’s eventual lack of a shirt. Its compact image makes the consequence of taking what belongs to someone else feel like a reversal: the thief’s gain gives way to personal deprivation. Pinocchio presents the saying as a remembered maxim, not as an abstract explanation of the events.

Use in the Farewell

The line follows pleas not to be abandoned, including the Cat repeating the appeal. Pinocchio answers with the proverb and calls the speakers rogues before he and Geppetto continue on their way. The saying therefore functions as a final judgment rather than an invitation to reconciliation; after another hundred steps, the pair see a straw hut and decide to knock there.