from Rabbi Dov Baer, the Mazid of Mezeritch*

In the service of God, one can learn three things from a child and seven things from a thief.

From a child you can learn:

1. Always to be happy
   
2. Never to sit idle
   
3. To cry for everything one wants ...
   

From a thief you should learn:

1. To work at night
   
2. If one cannot gain what one wants in one night to try again the next night
   
3. To love one's co-workers just as thieves love each other
   
4. To be willing to risk one's life even for a little thing
   
5. Not to attach too much value to things even though one has risked one's life for them -- just as a thief will resell a stolen article for a fraction of its real value
6. To withstand all kinds of beatings and tortures but to remain what you are
   
7. To believe that your work is worthwhile and not be willing to change it.

*From "The Wisdom of the Jewish Mystics," quoted in "Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews"