The THIEF as cross-cultural religious, political and psychoanalytical SYMBOL
“A monk came to the place of the hermit of T’ung Feng and asked, ‘If you suddenly encountered a tiger here, what then?’ The hermit made a tiger’s roar. The monk then made a gesture of fright. The hermit laughed aloud. The monk said, ‘you old thief !’ The hermit said, ‘What can you do about me?’ The monk gave up.” Carl Olson, Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy, New York 2000
(Carl Olson is an philospher [on religions], who focuses on the problem of the self by comparing Western existential and phenomenological thought with Zen thinkers such as Dōgen and Nishida. In addition to such thinkers as Jean-Paul Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Edmund Husserl, and Martin Heidegger, the author also includes a discussion of such Western philosophers as Descartes, Kant, Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke, and Hume. His comparative religious studies are focussing on Eliade`s “search for the center”. Olson is a professor of religious studies at Allegheny College, Pennsylvania)
Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. Paul of Tarsus, Apostle, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5
Following Jacques LACAN, a thief is one who knows to imitate displacement. Perhaps this definition is adapting a psychoanalysing reading of Jean GENETs “Journal du voleur” (The Thief´s Journal) from 1949, too. (another exemple of parallelism is the psychoanalytic interpretation of the Papin sisters murder [1933] by Lacan in a script of 1933 and “Les Écrits” [1953-54] and the scenic adaption “Les Bonnes” by Jean Genet [1947] ):
"For five years I have been writing books: I can say that I have done so
with pleasure, but I have finished. Through writing I have attained what I
was seeking. What will guide me, as something learned, is not what I have
lived, but the tone in which I tell of it. Not the anecdotes, but the
work of art. Not my life, but the interpretation of it."
The Thief's Journal (Jean Genet)
In the laughter of the hermit of T`ung Feng and in the tone of GENET´s tellings there is another thief revealing our human identity: a hidden interpreter of our actions, who steals away from among us – in a laughter – while we´re going on to arrange our daily life – in anguish or anger. But perhaps we will encounter the thief right now outside our window...(the mirror of our existence...):
Schinderhannes und die
Gendarmen
Wir wissen nicht, war es in Staudernheim oder Mengerschied, wo nachstehende
lustige Geschichte passiert ist:
Vier durstige Gesellen saßen in der Schenke, waren munter und guter Dinge.
Plötzlich hörten sie Pferdegetrappel und bald darauf sprengten zwei
Gendarmen auf den Hof. "Herr Wirt, einen Kümmel, wir sind auf der Suche nach
Schinderhannes, der sich hierherum aufhalten soll und haben voraussichtlich
noch eine harte Tour vor uns!" "He, Kameraden, kommt herein und ruht euch
von euren Strapazen ein wenig aus", rief einer der vorhin erwähnten Zecher.
"Ihr seid wackere Beamte und es soll uns nicht darauf ankommen, euch eine
Flasche Wein zum besten zu geben!" Gerne folgten die Gendarmen der
Aufforderung und bald saßen alle gemütlich bei ihrem Wein und bliesen
behaglich die Wolken aus ihren Pfeifchen. Der eine der vier Burschen verließ
dann ohne Aufsehen das Zimmer; kurz darauf ertönte vom Fenster aus ein
unbändiges Gelächter. Verwundert sahen alle um sich und erblickten ihren
seitherigen Zechgenossen, der sich vor Lachen kaum halten konnte. "Ihr wollt
Gendarmen sein", rief er den Beamten zu, "und kneipt mit dem Schinderhannes?"
"Auf, fangt ihn, wenn ihr schnelle Beine habt!" Damit war der Bursche vom
Fenster verschwunden, Die Gendarmen rannten in den Stall, schwangen sich auf
die Pferde, um den Flüchtling einzuholen, aber, o weh! Kaum waren sie zu dem
Stall draußen, fielen sie unsanft von den Pferden, - Schinderhannes hatte
die Sattelgurten losgeschnitten. 
Heimatkunde des Hunsrücks, Jac. Heinr.
Walter
1921
