Reiving (robbing, raiding, marauding, plundering) is an obsolete term,
but lingers on in words like bereave.
"Unlike the fertile river flats of the Tweed Valley, the bare hill country of the Scottish Borders provided mere subsistence for its inhabitants.
From the early fourteenth century to the end of the sixteenth, Borderers also suffered from the near-constant conflict between England and Scotland. Marauding armies ravaged the land, destroying crops, slaughtering cattle, burning settlements and killing indiscriminately.
Forced by extreme circumstance, many Borderers took to reiving to ensure survival of their families and communities.
For the best part of three hundred years countless raiding parties made their way south over the border, returning under cover of darkness leading their stolen cargo - anything portable that may have been of value, but mainly livestock: cattle, sheep and horses.
Raiding, arson, kidnapping, feud, murder and extortion were part of the social system."
(Alistair Moffat, "The Reivers", Berlinn, Edinburgh.)
My family originated in Yetholme, a Scottish Borders village located nine miles from Flodden Field, and these genes get the credit for my penchant for petty theft.
The fact that the forebears of Malcolm Turnbull (Australia's recently deposed Prime Minister) also came from this tiny village might explain his penchant for redistributing money, although his ancestors' approach to such redistribution, occurring in the rich-to-poor direction, was diametrically opposed to Malcolm's.
A few year ago, when I was a Senior Staff Specialist in a major regional hospital in New South Wales, Malcolm's aunt was referred to me as an outpatient.
During the consultation we chatted about her family, and naturally got around to her famous relative in Canberra.
She told me about Malcolm's dad, and about his visits to see her in past years. She also mentioned, with regret, how communication with Malcolm had ceased some years previously.
She discussed with some pride the family's descent from the Border Reivers, and their long and proud support for the working class.
She also expressed the opinion that her nephew was a "class traitor".
Like Malcolm, she was a very persuasive interlocutor, and I found myself agreeing with her.
I have found no reason since to change my opinion.