An Italian robbery was averted thanks to a good book.
This piece has been updated to include a note from a helpful, Italian-speaking reader. Thanks for writing in!
I have been distracted by books before. I’ve missed plenty of subway stops because I’ve been reading, I’ve been left behind at bookstores because I was browsing too much, and I was once running so behind for a date because I lost track of time reading, that I didn’t get a second date.
But I’ve never been so caught up in book that I forgot about a crime I’m in the process of committing, which is exactly what happened to a thief in Rome a few days ago.
According to the BBC, a burglar who was making off with a bag of expensive clothes that he’d lifted elsewhere, was so captivated by a copy of The Gods at Six O’Clock by Giovanni Nucci that he stopped escaping the crime scene.
The robber apparently thought he had time to kick back and read, assuming the house was empty—but it wasn’t. Caught in the middle of reading, the thief ran off, but was arrested by the cops soon after.
This story raises a lot of questions: How often are burglars taking robbing breaks? Would a robber be impressed by my bookshelves? What books have I read that are so good that they would distract me from fleeing a crime scene? What books should I surround my valuables with as a sort-of “Crime Deterrence Library?” Lots to ponder.
The best part of this story has been the reaction of the author whose book saved the day. An Italian paper got in touch with Nucci, and he was delighted:
Nucci, when informed of the incident, told Il Messaggero: “It’s fantastic.”
He added: “I’d like to find the person caught red-handed and give him the book, because he’ll have been arrested halfway through reading it. I’d like him to be able to finish it.”
I can’t think of a better review than, “This book was so engrossing that it stopped a crime.” I’m fully expecting a future edition of the book to have a blurb from the Carabinieri report on the crime.
Nucci also took to his Instagram and has been posting about the crime. Alas, I can’t speak Italian, and online translation wasn’t much help, but it looks like he’s recapping the story and more (non io so…):
An Italian speaker sent me an email about what Nucci is saying, and offering some paraphrasing of the video:
I believe Nucci’s video unveils an interesting concept, a mystical connection, almost, to the event in question and his book. Nucci wonders which pages the robber read, and doubts he reached the last ones, the ones about Hermes, the Greek God who invented literature and poetry. Hermes, however, is also said to be the God of liars — Nuccio’s favorite, he cares to add. Coincidences?
As the author in fact remarks, “this is a story that belongs to Hermes, a story of robbers, yes, but also of beauty and dreams to project into the future.” He concludes by saying he hopes the burglar gets the minimum sentence, and that the house owner may forgive him.
Nucci also shared some “ransom verse…”:
Which Google is telling me means:
…to thieves, vagabonds and pirates, to the robbed and the police: and to all the readers.
If a thief came, I thought, to take away a book of mine… leaving me here with the reverberation of this marginal fact – ultimately – of having written it.
(It does happen that writing leaves a trail behind it… and a passing vagabond then stops on the edge of a bed and is thus distracted by that silent thought – not mine – that through words rises, a bizarre magic, up from our depths.)
There’s more on Nucci’s page, if you’re curious, including this Croatian publishing house’s meme that he shared:
This is a wild story, and I’ll be following along, mostly to see if this robber ends up getting a copy of the book so he can finish it.
