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Dear Sirs: Let me begin by clearing up any possible misconception in your minds, wherever you are.

The collective by which I address you in the title above is neither patronizing nor jocose but an exact industrial term in use among professional thieves.

It is, I am reliably given to understand, the technical argot for those who engage in your particular branch of the boost ; ;

i.e., burglars who rob while the tenants are absent, in contrast to hot-slough prowlers, those who work while the occupants are home.

Since the latter obviously require an audacity you do not possess, you may perhaps suppose that I am taunting you as socially inferior.

Far from it ; ;

I merely draw an etymological distinction, hoping that specialists and busy people like you will welcome such precision in a layman.

Above all, disabuse yourselves of any thought that I propose to vent moral indignation at your rifling my residence, to whimper over the loss of a few objets d'art, or to shame you into rectitude.

My object, rather, is to alert you to an aspect or two of the affair that could have the gravest implications for you, far beyond the legal sanctions society might inflict.

You have unwittingly set in motion forces so malign, so vindictive, that it would be downright inhumane of me not to warn you about them.

Quite candidly, fellows, I wouldn't be in your shoes for all the rice in China.