Reading?

March 28th, 2026| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

The other day a burglar was arrested. Not surprising. Burglars do get caught. And this was in Rome, Italy. That’s not surprising either: 8,699 burglaries were reported in ye olde city in 2024, about 317 burglaries per 100,000 residents (Italy: 226/100K; USA: 229/100K; the UK: 316/100K). These things happen. And the perpetrators are caught … sometimes (Italy: 8% of the time; USA: 13%; the UK: 5%). So, yeah.

But this guy got caught because of a most unusual reason. He got distracted by … a book!

I’d have hoped he was caught reading La Bibbia dei Gedeoni, aka The Gideon’s Bible. But no. The book in question, according to news outlet RomaToday, was Gli Dei alle sei. L’Iliade all’ora dell’aperitivo (roughly: The Gods at Six: The Iliad at Cocktail Hour) by Giovanni Nucci, best known for his modern retellings of classical mythology. Of all the things to get distracted by!

Obviously an erudite thief, this 38-year-old larsenist. Which, by the way, doesn’t exculpate the guy. It was Theodore Roosevelt who apparently said:

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

This purloiner’s classical interest did not, thankfully, result in his looting the Vatican or St. Peter’s. In fact, he couldn’t even get away from his petty pilfering of another’s apartment in the Della Vittoria district (he got in through the balcony).

Because the 71-year-old owner, who was asleep, awoke hearing noises: it was our academic filcher. The dude was sitting on the owner’s bed, absorbed in the what the gods were up to at 6 o’clock in the evening, sipping their aperitifs.

He tried to get away, but the police were quicker. (I find that last clause a bit hard to believe, but maybe Roman thieves are slow, particularly the scholarly and learned types among them.) He was in possession of a bag of designer clothes stolen from another residence, which apparently had no books lying around, for our literate balcony pirate to absorb.

Moral:

Keep a few books in your bedroom.”

But there are books and books and books.

My son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless,
and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.
Ecclesiastes 12:12

Said Hugh of St. Victor in the eleventh century:

The books that men write are made of the skins of dead animals or some other corruptible material and, as these last for only a short time, the books themselves grow old and in their own way are reduced to nothing, leaving no vestige of themselves behind. And all who read these books will die some day, and there is no one to be found who lives forever. These, therefore, being made of dead things by mortal beings who are going to die, cannot bestow enduring life on those who read and love them.”

But not the Bible.

It is abiding, of value to all generations.

Forever, Yahweh, Your word stands in the heavens.
Psalm 119:89

It is weighty, telling us how to remain in relationship with God. So said Jesus:

“If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love.”
John 15:10

And it is binding.

All Scripture is God-inspired and profitable …
that the person of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16

It is the book of life—life here, and life hereafter. Jesus again:

“The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
John 6:63

Better, even than the Iliad! (And might even have saved the robber!)

SOURCE: BBC