Thus the weightiest matters were decided without difficulty.
Now, the taking of a purse out of a lady's reticule does not present much confusion as a legal proposition.

It would be somewhat difficult to persuade a judge or a jury that picking a pocket is not a crime.

It is far easier to demonstrate that the pocket was not picked at all.

This is generally only a question of money.
Witnesses can easily be secured to swear either that the lady had no reticule, or that if she had a reticule it contained no purse, or that some person other than the defendant took the purse, or that she herself dropped it, or that even if the prisoner took it he had no criminal intent in so doing, since he observed that it was about to slip from the receptacle in which it was contained and intended but to return it to her.

Lastly, if put to it, that in fact the owner was _no lady_, and therefore unworthy of credence.
Few persons realize how difficult it is for an outsider, such as an ordinary juryman, to decide an issue of fact.