Stolen Gain Goes Down the Drain

Luther's instruction to his barber on how think about the eighth commandment (Luther was instructing him how to pray through it):

I can learn here that I must not take property belonging to my neighbors from them or posses it against their will, either in secret or openly. I must not be false or dishonest in business, service, or work, nor profit by fraud, but must support myself by the sweat of my brow and eat my bread in honor. Furthermore, I must see to it that in any of the above-named ways my neighbors are not defrauded, just as I wish for myself. I also learn in this commandment that God, in his fatherly solicitude, sets a protective hedge around my goods and solemnly prohibits anyone to steal from me. Where that is ignored, he has imposed a penalty and those in authority are ordered to punish the disobedient. Where that cannot be done, God himself metes out punishment and they become beggars in the end. As the proverb says, "Those who steal in their youth go begging in old age," or, "Stolen gain goes down the drain."

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 58.