18. The Pickpocket King
The world has had no shortage of greedy, avaricious and outright kleptocratic rulers. However, most of them got underlings to do their looting for them without dirtying their own hands, and few were so driven by kleptomania as to personally engage in theft. One of the few who did just that was Egypt’s King Farouk (1920 – 1965), who reigned from 1936 until ousted by a military coup in 1952. His years in power were marked by endemic corruption, economic dislocation, and a flood of personal and political scandals.
Farouk was serious about theft: he actually took pick pocketing lessons. His victims included Winston Churchill, whom the Egyptian king invited to dinner during WWII. At the meal, Churchill discovered that his pocket watch – a prized family heirloom that had been a gift from Queen Anne to his ancestor John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough – had gone missing. After an outcry and search, Farouk, who had been seated next to Churchill, sheepishly turned it in, claiming to have “found” it.
