On the way to the station, he loudly professes that he does not believe in thieves, while oblivious to the fact that one team of professional pickpockets are competing to steal his money while another two thieves seek to protect him.

At the restaurant they meet Casey, who introduces them to Harry, Casey's protege and "cannon" - the term for a known and skilled professional pickpocket.

That officer, for one, would make an excellent professional pickpocket.

Michel soon falls in with a small group of professional pickpockets, who teach him their trade and invite him to join them on highly-coordinated pickpocketing sprees in crowded public areas.

"Nobody except a professional pickpocket, and even then I'd know."

The professional pickpocket at Ascot who has just relieved the grey-top-hatted gentleman by his side of his wallet doesn't plunge away madly through the crowd to the accompaniment of cries of 'Stop thief' and the certainty of rapid apprehension: he is more likely to ask his victim his tip for the next race.

With the length (75 minutes), minimal budget and instinctive antisocial attitude of an American B movie of the 1940's, "Pickpocket" traces Michel's career from clumsy amateur to the leader of a ring of professional pickpockets.

The piece tantalizes with the news that during Camelot, Pierre Salinger hired a professional pickpocket to quietly recover spoons on their way out the door, and that in 1990 a Secret Service agent was convicted of stealing more than $7,000 in presidential china.

The judge agreed to this, but continued to question the youngster, who admitted to be a professional pickpocket.

If they wanted to lift his wallet, they'd use a two-man team, as professional American pickpockets did, one to delay and distract, and the other to make the lift.