If a thief gives you part of something back, is he still a theif?

This story details how a Swedish professor’s laptop was stolen, but the thief  later returned his data.

The prof. stated that, “ “This story makes me feel hope for humanity.”

What?  hello!  Your laptop was stolen!  Sure, I understand that your data probably accounted for  months, maybe even years, of research.  But don’t ya think the laptop shouldn’t have been stolen in the first place?!  the guy commited a crime! he took something that did not belong to him!  Just because he returns part of his loot, he somehow gets a pass?!

It’s a lot like someone stealing your wallet containing $2000.00, but the criminal later returns all your credit cards.  I wonder if this had happened to the professor he would still have “hope for humanity.”   I doubt it.

The big question though is, how can this professor be so sure the data wasn’t also copied and kept by the thief?  It’ll be interesting to know if professor PC will be a victim of identify theft or not.