Steya

(“theft”) In the dharma literature, one
of the Four Great Crimes whose commission made one an outcast from society; steya was theft of a brahmin’s gold,
above a certain specified amount. One
guilty of this crime was to go to the king
bearing an iron club and receive a blow
to the head intended to be fatal. This
blow would absolve the sin, whether or
not one actually died, although one
was also expected to restore the stolen
property. For lesser amounts of gold the
punishment was less severe and satisfied by fasting (upavasa) and other
penance (prayashchitta). The stress on
the seriousness of this sin clearly reflects
the interests of the brahmins, who
undoubtedly wrote most of the
dharma literature.