Stolen Gains Never Bring a Good Outcome

Stolen Gains Never Bring a Good Outcome is a moral rule made concrete when Pinocchio meets the Fox and the Cat again: after they claim to be poor and ill, he refuses their plea for charity and answers with proverbs that present stolen wealth as fruitless and wrongdoing as self-defeating.

The Rule and Its Proverbs

The rule appears in three related proverbial forms. Pinocchio recalls that stolen money never bears fruit, then warns that the devil’s flour ends as bran, and finally invokes the saying that someone who steals a neighbor’s cloak generally ends up without a shirt. Each image turns dishonest gain into a failed bargain: what is taken cannot yield lasting benefit, and the thief may be left poorer than before.

Its Application to the Fox and the Cat

The rule is spoken in the aftermath of the Fox and the Cat’s earlier deception of Pinocchio. They ask him to show charity to two poor invalids, and the Cat repeats the Fox’s claims. Pinocchio recognizes them as the deceivers who tricked him before and declares that they have fooled him once but will not fool him again. When they insist that their poverty and misfortune are real, he answers that if they are poor, they deserve it, and supports that judgment with the proverb about stolen money.

Refusal and Narrative Consequence

The Fox and the Cat continue pleading, but Pinocchio repeats his farewell and delivers the other two warnings rather than offering help. His response makes the proverb an instrument of judgment: he applies its principle directly to those who deceived him and stole from him, refusing to treat their present hardship as grounds for renewed trust. He then continues peacefully on his way with Geppetto. The rule thus closes this encounter with the former victims no longer under the pair’s sway and the thieves’ appeal left unanswered.