This code sets a particular penalty for thievery committed by an apprentice or a burgher. But if a knight steals, it is another matter. A noble simply does not steal: he robs. Theft lies entirely outside his competence, so to speak. If he acquires something illegitimately, it is assumed that he took it by force, by an act of robbery; and robbery is far more severely punished in the code than theft! The knight's noble position thus prevents him from suffering the milder penalty.

XREF: Connects to how legal categories encode social hierarchy, similar to how honor codes shape what actions are even conceivable for different classes. DEFINE: The distinction between theft and robbery here turns on the offender's social class, not the nature of the act.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 493