My wife's wallet was almost stolen by a thief yesterday.
She was on the bus to work. It was not peak hour, and the bus was no packed. At one stop, 3 young guys got onboard. One sit besides my wife. He cut my wife's pocket. Luckily there was a pen blocked the cut open, and she found out. After his try was failed, the guy just smiled back when my wife blamed him. And those 3 guys alighted at the next stop.
During the whole process, nobody on the bus even looked at this direction, just as if nothing was happened. This is the situation about thieves in Shanghai.
I heard one similar story saying that theives in Shanghai are actually more civilized. One guy lost his wallet and all the important ID cards on a bus. After the recall, the next day, he persuaded the suspected thief to return his wallet, of course, no money left.
So, remember one thing, money is just some notes circulated on the market, it is not part of your body.