The Bicycle Thief

choi

Sarah Lewis, The Bicycle Thief; A mistaken assumption leads to a police encounter in Japan. New York Times Magazine, July 12, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/magazine/the-bicycle-thief.html

Note:
(a) The Bicycle Thief is the US title of a 1948 Italian film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_Thieves
(Italian: Ladri di biciclette)
(b) Italian English dictionary
* ladro (noun masculine; plural ladri): "thief, burglar"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ladro
* bicicletta (noun feminine; from biciclo [bi- two + noun masculine ciclo cycle] +‎ -etta; plural biciclette): “bicycle”
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bicicletta

choi

An English friend of mine, after I brought the article to his attention, wrote me back on June 16, "Thank you.  I sympathize with her.  I too furnished my flat completely from 'large-size rubbish' and I too got a bicycle from a big pile of rusting bikes when I was a teacher there."

You see, not only Chinese do that in America. My observation is most Americans do not do that--perhaps having learned a lesson: bedbugs can hide not just in mattresses.