What part of your private property that nobody is allowed to access, and that even nosy people dare not break into? This is not a riddle. It is not a reflexive question either. It is a simple question that almost everybody can answer without much thinking. It is your POCKET.

            Full or empty, new or in holes, these bags sewn in your clothes bear a multitude of connotations and are of great significance for everybody. They always have a tight relation with your fortune, behaviour and emotions. All sorts of clothes, generally speaking, contain pockets even pyjamas; yet almost no one has ever asked why they are there. It is, I think, because people are used to them. Rich or poor, all have pockets. But I'm wondering why we associate them with money and wealth while they are used for many other issues?

            The pocket is a safe, a container, and a glove. It serves a lot of different functions at the same time. I could even add that it is a huge philosophical theme not yet analyzed properly. The pocket deserves much thinking and research. And I'm not saying I'm fit for it. I'll just try to record the things that almost everybody knows but they never think of articulating them. The pocked is used independently for many reasons and tasks. It is a normal place for keeping coins, banknotes, handkerchief, identity card, small book, notebook, keys, pens, and other items. So it is something you can't do without. We sometimes use our pockets to rest or warm our hands. We extraordinarily use them to hide a small knife or a packet of cigarettes. But pockets are not designed to be shopping baskets. They have different places in our clothes and different shapes accordingly. Therefore they have different functions and they serve different tasks. Take for instance shirt pockets; these are used for carrying papers and light things whereas trousers pockets are designed to carry other things and the same thing for coat or jacket pockets.

            Lexically, the word pocket is pregnant with meaning. However it is generally connected with money. Rich people are belly-full of pocket-full and this is almost common for all civilizations and cultures.The word pocket is found in many situations such as pocket money, air pocket, pocket handkerchief, pocket knife and so on and so forth. In idioms we can find for instance expressions like: "put one's pride in one's pocket", "put one's hand in one's pocket". Likewise, almost all languages have expressions as such. Moreover the word pocket appears very so often in Sayings and proverbs. Still the pocket is connected in people's subconscious to money and wealth.

            As you can see the dappled pocket is always a different one in each circumstance, yet its function is reduced to be only but one, notably to contain money. This will get clearer when we talk about people who operate on other people's pockets. I mean those who steal or rob money from others' pockets. These low-ranked thieves are referred to as pick-pockets. They are simple poor thieves who steal modest poor people in the markets, streets, buses, and other crowded places. They have the ability as to insert their fingers smoothly inside pockets and pick up what they could find. They really have that power as to hypnotize their victims. I wonder if this craft would be of any utility if they dealt with a Kangaroo's pocket!As a matter of fact the pick pockets are tiny and dwarf creatures when compared to the scavengers : The Robbers, the Burglars and the Gangs of all size and origin. The famous Mafia is an international organization that picks Large pockets like banks, hypermarkets, big stores etc...

            The story has not yet been closed. There is another category of pick-pockets who deal with another category of pockets (collective pockets). These could be referred to as the "legal" thieves. The legal thieves can steal openly without fear because they are beyond the Law and they have got the keys of jails in their hands. They may imprison themselves, but just for fun. They have got the power to reach all pockets including those well guarded.

            Let's play judges for a while and read the following verdict: The poor tiny little thieves or pick-pockets are declared non-guilty. They are rather victims because the giant ones have made them practise such an illegal activity out of distress. They seem to be forced to do that. So why put in jail people who were not given the chance to work and earn their livings?! So let's no longer consider the pick-pockets a disturbing effective element in the economical system for they are just victims among others. Their role in the vicious circle of thefts is quite valueless. What we should rather direct our attention to is the file of the "other" PICK-POCKETS; I mean those who steal the big large "pockets" such as those of the country for instance, i.e.: Public enemy number One. You all have the right, thus, to wonder, "Where has the money you paid as taxes gone?" Some criminals have picked it up and sent it to non-classified banks where money has got neither nationality nor smell.

            Post Script: Take care of your national patrimony, as for your pockets I'm almost sure the pick-pockets will not find much to pick up because they have already been swept repeatedly actions by burglars and ... tax-men.