"opportunity makes the thief" meaning in English

See opportunity makes the thief in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Forms: opportunity makes a thief [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-proverb}} opportunity makes the thief
  1. People are more likely to steal something if presented with a convenient opportunity to do so. Translations (proverb): tilaisuus tekee varkaan (Finnish), Gelegenheit macht Diebe (German), l'occasione fa l'uomo ladro (Italian), okazja czyni złodzieja (Polish), пло́хо не клади́, во́ра в грех не вводи́ (plóxo ne kladí, vóra v grex ne vvodí) (Russian), en arca abierta el justo peca (Spanish), la ocasión hace ladrón (Spanish)

Alternative forms

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      "form": "opportunity makes a thief",
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      "glosses": [
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      "id": "en-opportunity_makes_the_thief-en-proverb-ERf-8iz6",
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          "likely",
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          "convenient",
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        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "proverb",
          "word": "tilaisuus tekee varkaan"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "proverb",
          "word": "Gelegenheit macht Diebe"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "proverb",
          "word": "l'occasione fa l'uomo ladro"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "proverb",
          "word": "okazja czyni złodzieja"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "plóxo ne kladí, vóra v grex ne vvodí",
          "sense": "proverb",
          "word": "пло́хо не клади́, во́ра в грех не вводи́"
        },
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "proverb",
          "word": "en arca abierta el justo peca"
        },
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          "steal"
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "tilaisuus tekee varkaan"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "Gelegenheit macht Diebe"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "l'occasione fa l'uomo ladro"
    },
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      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "okazja czyni złodzieja"
    },
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      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "пло́хо не клади́, во́ра в грех не вводи́"
    },
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      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "en arca abierta el justo peca"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "la ocasión hace ladrón"
    }
  ],
  "word": "opportunity makes the thief"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-01 using wiktextract (142890b and 1d3fdbf). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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