these are obviously topics of central concern in literary theory and criticism, and the study of medieval opinions on theft thus appears to be completely warranted. Grunebaun's approach is, however, in need of a certain amount of rethinking, most particularly because, due to a number of misunderstanding in his sources, he presented Ahmed as the great exception among the theorists who, says grunebaum, comes closest to great thinking in making a distinction between plagiarism and imitation