The Laws of Theft

The difference between the two prohibitions, theft (geneiva) and robbery (gezela), is that a thief is one who comes secretly and, without the owner's knowledge, steals property or money, whereas a robber is one who forcibly snatches an object or money from the owner's hand. Of course, both the thief and the robber must return what they took or pay the value of what they took. The difference between them, however, is that the robber always pays only what he robbed, whereas the thief – the one who comes at night and in secret – if witnesses testified against him before an ordained court [that is, one whose judges received rabbinic ordination (semikha) from teacher to student going back to Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him], must pay double what he stole. Nowadays, when there is no Sanhedrin and no ordained court, the court does not have the authority to judge laws of fines, and the thief too pays only the value of what he stole.

Another important law to know: by Torah law, a person is forbidden to steal money or objects from his fellow even if their value does not amount to a peruta. That is, the matter does not depend on the value of what is stolen; rather, any theft, however trivial, is forbidden by Torah law. It must further be added that not only stealing an object permanently is considered theft; one who steals with the intention of returning – who wants to use his fellow's object for a certain time and then return it – this act too is considered theft.

In summary, the Torah prohibition against stealing or robbing in effect covers all of another person's belongings, such that anyone who uses them without permission, even for a short time, transgresses the prohibition of theft.

There are those who sometimes play pranks on their friends: without their knowledge they take some important object from them, and then enjoy watching them worry and nervously search for the missing object. It is clear that one who does this transgresses a Torah prohibition by the very fact that he causes his fellow distress. However, as for the prohibition of theft, the commentators disagree about the degree of severity of theft done as a game. Some say that theft as a game is also forbidden by Torah law. Others say that since it is done as a game, and not in order to use the friend's object, there is no Torah prohibition of theft here; rather, the Sages forbade doing so, lest through such a game people become accustomed to actually stealing. However, as stated, even if with regard to the prohibition of theft there is only a rabbinic prohibition here, nevertheless by the very causing of distress to one's fellow, one transgresses a Torah prohibition (Shulḥan Arukh HaRav, Laws of Theft and Robbery 1-3).