A man cannot be accused of robbery, if it's impossible to state accurately what he has stolen
 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880). copy citation

add
Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Source The Brothers Karamazov
Topic robbery state
Date 1880
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Constance Garnett
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28054/28054-h/28054-h.html https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov

Context

“He was not running to carry out a program, to carry out what he had written, that is, not for an act of premeditated robbery, but he ran suddenly, spontaneously, in a jealous fury. Yes! I shall be told, but when he got there and murdered him he seized the money, too. But did he murder him after all? The charge of robbery I repudiate with indignation. A man cannot be accused of robbery, if it's impossible to state accurately what he has stolen; that's an axiom. But did he murder him without robbery, did he murder him at all? Is that proved? Isn't that, too, a romance?” Chapter XII. And There Was No Murder Either “Allow me, gentlemen of the jury, to remind you that a man's life is at stake and that you must be careful.” source