From Theft to Laboring Good

Neville's Inner Vision

In the inner world, theft is but a state of consciousness—a belief in deprivation. To 'let him that stole steal no more' is to renounce the old self that excites envy and takes from life. 'Let him labour with his hands the thing which is good' means you cultivate an inner craft—consistent, imaginative activity that yields 'good' in your outer world. The 'hands' are your faculties (perception, thought, speech, action). When you imagine yourself as the man who does good, your external conditions rearrange to support it. The purpose of labor is not toil for its own sake, but to create the possibility of giving to those in need—an outward expression of your inner abundance, not a compensation for guilt. The act of giving completes the inner cycle: you acknowledge life is not scarce but abundant in your inner consciousness. The verse invites you to shift from a thief state to a giver state by presuming the good and acting from it. Your daily decisions, then, are acts of inner correction—habits that align your dream of plenty with present action.