Here's Hong Kong. I like the tongue and the mask.
http://flickr.com/photos/steveportigal/2374050759/

This image is really fighting with the more modern evil-doer image in Japan, ie: black or non-descript jacket, matching baseball cap, dark sunglasses, face or surgical mask. What is interesing to me is that the more modern image is also sometimes female, whereas the traditional thief image is exclusively male.

thief in chicago = suit. tie. clean haircut. smirk. walking out of board of trade.

Google Images search works well for this:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=thief
or
http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=dieb

I don't think here in italy there's such a
precise stereotype for a thief. but if there was one i'm absolutely sure it won't look local but definitely foreigner, probably a gipsy.

(you know, people see them as the cause of every evil in our society, from delays on the underground to global warming... [GRIN]).

Regards,
Marcello

A quick look at Google Images (http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=thief) shows that the global image of a thief includes at least some of the following:

1) A beret or a black tuque-style hat
2) A Zorro-style mask
3) A striped prison uniform-style shirt
4) A big sack overflowing with loot on the back

Also: I've never seen an image of a female thief - apparently all villains are mail :)

A quick look at Google Images (http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=thief) shows that the global image of a thief includes at least some of the following:

1) A beret or a black tuque-style hat
2) A Zorro-style mask
3) A striped prison uniform-style shirt
4) A big sack overflowing with loot on the back

Also: I've never seen an image of a female thief - apparently all villains are male :)

Google image search provides some interesting insights: http://images.google.com/images?q=thief&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

Three stereotypes leap out: stripey shirt, eye mask, bag 'o' swag; aladdin-esque street urchin
and fantasy/rpg (with a little cross over for the latter two) ...

In the UK of my childhood it was the middle-aged man in a stripy jumper with flat cap and swag bag. See the Ahlberg's "Burglar Bill" (http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140503012,00.html) as the reference case.

Swap the bag for a string of onions and the flat cap for a beret, and you get our stereotypical Frenchman, which surely says something about our historical relationship with our nearest neighbour :)

These days, though, I reckon our thieves are younger, less respectable, and more likely to wear a hoodie or shell suit.

a very good example here in Brazil is president Lula and all his friends of PT. And all the other politicals deserve the same definition...

thief in india:

visual caricature does not exist in stereotypical graphic detail.

dry phrase on street signage says, 'beware of pickpockets' and is stencilled in white paint on cement walls in crowded commuter zones.

incidentally, since mid-2005, the phrase now reads, 'beware of mobile pickpockets'