Parabola's Summer 1984 issue: Theft Thou shalt not steal--it is an injunction common to every tradition. It appears unambiguous at first: do not take what does not belong to you. But what, ultimately, belongs to anyone? I might say I own a piece of land; Native Americans tell me that the earth is our mother, that none can own her. And mortality effectively shows us that material possessions of all kinds are on very temporary loan.    The traditions warn us against theft for the good of our souls, not for the protection of property. If I steal something, I am stealing away my own possibilities. I am depriving myself of developing the ability to create my own wealth.    Yet everyone steals. Whose opinions do you hold? Whose gestures do you take? Whose convictions do you defend? Of what can you say, "This is my own"? Krishnamurti says that we steal because "in ourselves there is nothing.... Imitation is a form of stealing: you are nothing, but he is something, so you are going to get some of his glory by copying him. This corruption runs right through human life and very few are free of it." Everyone steals, but no one wishes to be an imitation. There is a universal desire to be authentic. Unmasking the emptiness of what is called one's own and, conversely, indicating the direction of what cannot be stolen, what must be earned, what is worth paying for, are twin currents running throughout this issue. --from the editorial Focus Cover: "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" In this issue:

• "The Thief in Krishna" by John Stratton Hawley
  - Stealing the heart
• "Birthright" by Jonathan Omer-Man
  - Esau speaks
• "The Golden Bowl" by Robert A.F. Thurman
  - The Buddhist path of limitless generosity
• "Den of Thieves" by D.M. Dooling
  - Guarding the temple
• "The New Disciple"
  - A story by Janwillem van de Wetering
• "Surviving the Present"
  - An interview with David Maybury-Lewis
• "Stealing Horses" by Joseph Bruchac
  - Native American deeds of honor
• Arcs: "Breaking the Lock"
• "Co-opting Culture" by Robert W. Venables
  - Museums, art theft, and repatriation
• "Ms. Quigley"
  - A story by P.L. Travers
• "The Cosmic Bee" by Lawrence Russ
  - Loki's divine transgressions

Tangents - Reviews

• "A Feather on the Breath of God" by Barbara L. Grant
  - Abbess Hildegard of Bingen's Sequences and Hymns

Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world

• "The Cat and Mouse in Partnership" / European
• "How Gluskabe Stole Tobacco" / Abenaki (Native American) retold by Joseph Bruchac
• "The Soul-Taker" / Armenian retold by Anne Twitty
• "The Seer of Lublin's Shirt" / Hasidic Jewish retold by Diane Wolkstein