A theef he was for soth of corn and mele,
And that a sleigh (sly), and usyng (practised) for to stele.
Chaucer’s Reeves Tale.
This practice included a large college then existing in Cambridge, but now forgotten, the Soler Hall, which suffered greatly by his depredations.
And on a day it happed in a stounde,
Syk lay the mauncyple on a maledye,
Men wenden wisly that he schulde dye;
For which this meller stal bothe mele and corn
A thousend part more than byforn.
For ther biforn he stal but curteysly;