In Lu Xun’s story Kong Yiji, published in April 1919, the title character drinks at the Xianheng tavern. The customers shout that he must have stolen again. One says he saw him beaten for stealing books from the He family. Kong Yiji turns red and argues: “Stealing books cannot be counted as theft. Stealing books! The affairs of a scholar, can they be counted as theft?” (窃书不能算偷……窃书！……读书人的事，能算偷么？)
The whole tavern bursts out laughing.