History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.929.1

v4.c63.929.1

*Steya* is distinguished from *sāhasa* in Manu VIII. 332, Kauṭ. III. 17, Nār. XVII. 12 and other works as stated under sāhasa below. Kāt. 810 defines948b it as 'depriving a man of his wealth either clandestinely or openly and either by night or by day'. Nār. XVII. 17 defines it as 'deprivation of wealth by various means from people that are asleep, careless or intoxicated'. It may be of three kinds according to the value of the thing stolen viz. trifling (when earthen-ware, seats, cots, wood, hides, grass, beans in pods or cooked food is stolen) or middling (when the theft relates to clothes except silken ones, animals except cows and bulls, metals except gold, rice and barley), grave or high (when gold, jewels, silken cloth, women, men, cattle, elephants, horses and the wealth of brāhmaṇas or temples is stolen). Vide Nār. XVII. 13-16 and Yāj. II. 275. Thieves are either *prakāśa* (open or patent) or *aprakāśa* (secret) acc. to Manu IX. 256, Bṛ.⁹⁴⁹ (S. B. E. 33 p. 359 v. 2). Acc. to Manu IX. 258-260, Nār. (pariśiṣṭa 2-3) and Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 360 verses 3-4) patent thieves are traders who employ false weights and balances, gamblers, quacks, bribers of *sabhyas*, prostitutes, those who profess to arbitrate, those who manufacture imitation articles, those who subsist by prognosticating good fortune or portents or by magic or palmistry, false witnesses &c. Manu (IX.