In larceny the consequences immediately flowing from the act are
generally exhausted with little or no harm to the owner. Goods
are removed from his possession by [71] trespass, and that is
all, when the crime is complete. But they must be permanently
kept from him before the harm is done which the law seeks to
prevent. A momentary loss of possession is not what has been
guarded against with such severe penalties. What the law means to
prevent is the loss of it wholly and forever, as is shown by the
fact that it is not larceny to take for a temporary use without
intending to deprive the owner of his property. If then the law
punishes the mere act of taking, it punishes an act which will
not of itself produce the evil effect sought to be prevented, and
punishes it before that effect has in any way come to pass.
The reason is plain enough. The law cannot wait until the
property has been used up or destroyed in other hands than the
owner's, or until the owner has died, in order to make sure that
the harm which it seeks to prevent has been done. And for the
same reason it cannot confine itself to acts likely to do that
harm. For the harm of permanent loss of property will not follow
from the act of taking, but only from the series of acts which
constitute removing and keeping the property after it has been
taken.
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