Historical Factors

Thieves may be especially notorious (or maybe especially famous!) in a society for some unique historical reason. The people may speak of how brave Edrain the master thief backstabbed the wicked tyrant Baron Higsel and brought about the downfall of an evil tyranny. Hence thieves are somewhat better tolerated than elsewhere. Or they may speak of how evil Edrain the treacherous backstabber foully slew the greatly loved and wise Baron Higsel, the best ruler in the history of the land, and since this time thieves are deemed especially wicked, base, treacherous fellows and death is an automatic punishment for them! These are extremes, but the DM can easily envisage many variants on this kind of unique background.

All these general social backgrounds can easily merge into personal obsessions or idiosyncracies of rulers, in dictatorial countries. There are many idiosyncratic reasons why a particular leader might have an especially punitive or lenient (less likely!) attitude to thieves than the general social alignment might suggest, but there should always be a good reason why. For example, a paladin ruler of a city-state might be unusually lenient toward thieves because a (Neutral Good) thief companion saved his life more than once in their adventuring days. Unlikely, admittedly, but possible! Such oddities should be thought up individually by the DM so that they fit with the campaign setting and history.

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