Can Jews Steal From Gentiles?
No. Jewish law unequivocally forbids theft from anyone — Jew or gentile. The Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 348:2) and Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (Hilchot Gezeilah 1:2) both state explicitly that it is biblically forbidden to steal even a minor amount from a gentile, and anything stolen must be returned.
The accusation usually points to Bava Metzia 24a or Bava Kamma 113b. But Bava Metzia 24a is not about theft at all — it deals with the laws of returning lost objects. Bava Kamma 113a–b actually states the opposite of the accusation: it derives from Leviticus 25:48–50 that theft from a gentile is forbidden, with Rava clarifying that the earlier passage referred to annulling an undocumented loan, not stealing.
Far from permitting theft, the rabbis treated stealing from a gentile as more serious than stealing from a Jew, because it desecrates G-d's name in the eyes of the nations (Tosefta Bava Kamma 10:8). Rabbinic literature preserves several stories of rabbis going out of their way to return found money or valuables to gentiles, with the gentiles responding, "Blessed is the G-d of the Jews."
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