The well-known disadvantages of having an undefined requirement of dishonesty in theft have caused some writers to propose that the requirement should be more precisely stated. Section 2(1) of the Theft Act 1968 specifies cases where the defendant is declared not to have been dishonest (belief in right, belief that onc would have the owner's consent, belief that the owner cannot be discovered), and an obvious way of clarifying the law would be to abolish thc general issue of dishonesty but to allow a defence in these specific cases (together with such other specific cases as might be determined).

The only difficulty in the way of this solution, as I see it, is to decide what is to be done about people who abstract money from a fund intending to repay, or intending and also being presently able to repay. In the past, opinions have been sharply divided between what may be called the orthodox and the lenient approach.