Just as Scipio gets off the merry-go-round, the gang's fence Barbarossa arrives, intending to take his payment. Scipio, who hates the vulnerability of being a child, requests a ride and comes off an adult.

They reveal that they were the penniless servants of the nobles who lived there, and schemed to repair the merry-go-round to reclaim childhoods that had been lost to hard labor. They tell him that the magical merry-go-round worked. The next morning, Scipio and Prosper meet the Conte and Morosina, who are now both young children. On the island, the Conte's sister, Morosina, catches them climbing the wall and locks them inside the stables. While the others stay with Ida Spavento, Prosper and Scipio return to the Conte's island home to get the money they are owed. With Victor's help, they find Hornet and Boniface. When they return, they find Boniface and Hornet gone and discover the money they received for the wing is counterfeit. The gang, along with Ida, goes to make the exchange the next night, leaving Boniface and Caterina 'Hornet' Grimani, the gang's only girl, to guard the hideout. She agrees to let them have the wing if they let her accompany them to the exchange.

At her house, Ida tells them the wing is from a magical merry-go-round, which has the ability to change a person's age. The wing belongs to a woman named Ida Spavento. In the meantime, Victor escapes, leaving a note saying he would not turn them in unless they went forward with stealing the wing. Massimo's house, where they learn Scipio's secret. Victor distracts the gang by sending them to Dr. Victor finds their hideout, but is ambushed and tied up by the kids, who fear he will expose them. Massimo, but the doctor is emotionally abusive, so Scipio leads a double life on the streets. He discovers that Scipio is actually the son of a wealthy doctor, Dr. Over the course of his investigation, Victor has several run-ins with the gang. They hire a detective, Victor Getz, to find them. The runaway boys' rich but shallow aunt and uncle wish to adopt only sweet-faced Boniface. Orphaned and unwilling to be separated, brothers Prosper and Boniface Hartleib run away to Venice where they are taken in by a group of street children led by a proud orphan named Scipio, AKA 'The Thief Lord.' A man calling himself the Conte asks the 'Thief Lord' to steal a wooden lion's wing for him. It was Funke's first novel published in the United States and was adapted into a film in 2006. It was published in Germany in 2000 and translated into English by Oliver Latsch in 2002 for The Chicken House, a division of Scholastic publishing company. The Thief Lord is a children's novel written by Cornelia Funke. English book cover by in English from Chicken House Publishing, Ltd and Scholastic.

The thief lord by cornelia funke