drsam I am saying exactly that. People beat the guy so many times. He was even made to parade with his face blackened. His father refused to receive him after he came back from jail. But he is just pathological. People find it funny because he does not steal like other thieves. He never carries a gun. He was once even beaten up by a few girls. 

Once he went into someone's house. While he was in the room, someone in the house locked the door from outside so he could not go. In the mosque, announcement was made for all the people of the village to gather round in the house where a burglary had just been intercepted.

Nobody knew who the thief was. And when the door was opened and the mob of people with batons, guns and everything rushed into the room, the room was empty.

Later Deewaana told that it was him and had actually joined the mob and had started shouting along with them. He said he even tried to look under the bed to search for the "thief". He had mixed up with the people so cleverly that no body realized. :)

Fatimah, you are also right. Personally, I hate thieves, they must be punished and the world must be ridded of them. The point of the joke is just the manner of this idiotic thief, nothing else. :)