The book thief

As all book buyers know book thieves come in many forms. The most common are those who borrow books and (conveniently) forget to return them. Once it is in their possession it is theirs. Mwahahaha. These are evil
book thieves. Then there are those who misplace it. "It is only a book, what? Why is she getting so upset?" some would say. These are the stupids. At least one can respect the former, and given an opportunity we can use a similar tactic to steel one back from them. (Just so you know, I don't end my book -- call me whatever name you want.)

Then there are those who steal from bookshops or libraries by stuffing it down their pants (or whatever). Those who borrow from libraries and book rentals but don't return them eventually end up paying, so I can't say that amount to stealing. There are those who buy a book, photocopy the pages they want and return the book to the shop for a refund or an exchange. (Oh, I didn't realise I already had another copy at home.) But the most despicable of all thieves are those who rip pages they want out from books -- from libraries and from bookshops. It has happened to us.

This is exactly what Farhad Hakimzadeh, a wealthy businessman from Knightsbridge in London, did. He has been given two years, after he pleaded guilty, for stealing pages from rare books in the British Library and Bodleian Library. Staff at the British Library said Farhad Hakimzadeh looked like just the kind of person who would visit a good library. This former director of the Iran Heritage Foundation, who appeared extremely knowledgeable, is described as a published author, a collector of rare books and a very wealthy man. In all, he was accused of removing pages from 150 books. And pages from British Library texts were inserted into books owned by Hakimzadeh.

BBC News