E  B


[Verse 1]
E                           B
In the earliest days of my shop-lifting career
E                           G#
You could safely say I was filled with fear
       A                         B
It was nail-biting work from the very start
     E                           B
But several quick successes soon gave me heart


[Verse 2]
E                     B
After a while I could pick and nick with ease
E                                    B
Some shirts, some trousers and a few LP's
A                                    B
No one ever stopped me, they didn't seem to care
    E                                 B
It sometimes seemed to me, there was no one there


(Link)
C#m                         F#
Then a fine summers day my mate Ted and me
C#m                              F#
Set off down the West End on our usual spree
C#m                          A
Things were as normal for an hour or so
B
Then my nimble hands were a bit too slow


[Verse 3]
E                           B
Two store-detectives made a fast approach
C#m                                           B
One grabbed my jacket, (you're nicked, haha!) the other grabbed my throat
A                               B
"So we caught you at last", one said with joy
E                              B
"Been after you some time, my light-fingered boy"


(Link)
E   C#m   B  C#m  B  A  B  E  B


(Link Vocal)
C#m                       F#
If only I'd remembered my common sense
C#m                               F#
They captured me red-handed with evidence
C#m                        A
If I go to the manager and say I'm sorry
B
Maybe he'll forgive me for my youthful folly


(Link 2)
       Em                D
"But - but what will the social worker say
Em     D
If - if I don't come home today?
Em             D
He'll gimme a clout
Em                        D
What if they don't let me out?
Em                        D
I - I told 'em I'm on me own
Em                    D
Don't they understand I'm from a broken home?"

[Verse 4]

E                                   B
I'll tell him I'm the product of a broken home
C#m                          Bm
And I always went out on my own
A                  B
Was it too late to say I'd pay
E                                    B
And I'll never steal again till the end of my days?

E                           B
Because I had no friends to call as such
C#m                      G#m
Money and possessions I did not 'ave much
A                        B
So I started to steal in order to get by
E                         B
The quickness of the hand deceives the eye
E           B
Deceives the eye, the eye, the eye, the eye, the eye, the eye