The secrets of pick pockets

What is a pickpocket?  We all know that a pickpocket is someone who steals money and other valuables from a person, called a mark, without his or her knowing it, at least at the very instance of the theft.  The deed is done so cleanly that most of the time, the victim does not know that he or she has become the latest mark of a pickpocket until it is too late and the pickpocket has already gotten away with it.  pickpockets are known most for their nimble fingers.

Have you ever wondered how it is that pickpockets get away with purloining items from their unwitting marks?  Surely there is more to the whole business of being pickpockets other than just having dextrous fingers?  Actually, there is more to the art of being a pickpocket beyond possessing light appendages.  A good pickpocket is a master of the art of distraction, and that is one of the biggest secrets of picking pockets.

You see, no matter how much praise efficiency gurus put into the art of multi-tasking, a person’s mind normally has the capacity to focus on only one thing at a time.  A writer trying to beat a deadline may be so busy pounding on the keys of his laptop at his table in a coffee shop that he has totally forgotten that he has his wallet just lying around.  An office worker may be in so much of a rush to catch the train so he would not be late for work that he does not give a second thought to being jostled at the platform.  The same office worker may be so tired on the way home that he let himself fall asleep on the train.

A person’s mind can only effectively concentrate on one thing at a time.  It is this psychological principle that pickpockets always use to their benefit.  As the old saying goes among pickpockets, it is not possible to steal a person’s money as long as that person has his mind focused on it.

Another psychological principle that pickpockets use is that when a person is dealt with two kinds of forces that disorient him, one stronger than the other, his mind tends to focus on what had hit him strongest.  If a person gets tapped and slapped at the same time, the slap, being the action with the greater force, will make the person not feel the tap at all.

And so, when a person’s mind is keen on his personal belongings, what a good pickpocket does is to try his best to take his mark’s mind away from them and to distract his mark so the mark will not feel the pickpocket’s fingers prying away at his valuables.  The classic method of picking pockets is to jostle and bump a mark.  The bump disorients the mark and as the pickpocket’s body comes in contact with the body of the mark, so do his fingers come in contact with his mark’s wallet.

Of course, some people would protest and claim that they would instantly feel it when their wallet has gone missing from its usual place.  The thing is that we become so familiar with many things that we take them for granted.  Our minds may become lulled into thinking that the wallet is just there in our pocket because we are so used to putting our wallets in that particular pocket.  So, we will not really notice it when a good pickpocket does his job.

Therefore, when a comedy act that specializes in picking pockets for entertainment shows up at your company dinner and manages to dangle your wallet at you without even knowing how he got it in the first place, do not be surprised.  You were probably laughing so hard at his antics that you did not feel his fingers in your pocket.

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