# Old style punishments, i. e. cutting off hand for stealing. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193 "2008-12-21T15:34:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/21 "2008-12-22T02:54:54Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Saudi Arabia still chops off hands. They also still use swords to cut off heads for capital > punishment. I’m pretty sure they’re not too concerned about blood loss after a beheading… ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/22 "2008-12-22T03:18:15Z")
From **BijouDrain** ’s link: > [@](#): > > One of the more gruesome parts of living in Saudi was “chop-chop square”. This was an open courtyard area just off the gold souks where each Friday punishment was meted out to the criminals convicted of serious crimes as robbery, drug dealing or murder. Islamic law requires a thief to have his right hand cut off; this punishment can be administered after one offense but is usually not delivered until after multiple offenses. > > Persons convicted of drug-related offenses, rape and murder all are beheaded. This is done today just as it was a thousand years ago; with a large curved sword. **A modern twist is often used in that the person is usually drugged and often has some of their blood removed just before execution so the scene is not so messy**. So blood loss isn’t important from a medical standpoint in a beheading, but it seems to be a consideration from an aesthetic POV. ---
**Author:** ![greatshakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@greatshakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greatshakes)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/23 "2008-12-22T04:22:34Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > From **BijouDrain** ’s link: > > So blood loss isn’t important from a medical standpoint in a beheading, but it seems to be a consideration from an aesthetic POV. Somewhere here, there is a quality of life joke, but I just can’t find it.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/24 "2008-12-22T12:40:17Z")
I have another related question. Suppose you were sentenced to the stocks in medieval Britain. What could the general public do to you? Were there any limits? Could you be stabbed, murdered etc? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/25 "2008-12-22T14:34:09Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > I have another related question. Suppose you were sentenced to the stocks in medieval Britain. What could the general public do to you? Were there any limits? Could you be stabbed, murdered etc? This is a highly topical question, as there are some people involved in stocks here in the US right now who should be punished by the general public. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/26 "2008-12-22T18:33:36Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Amputations are carried out by one of the State Executioner. THe Al-Bishi family has a lock on the jobs. Executions pay SAR5,000 a job. They also fly for free on internal flights to work. > > They use a sword to make the cut in the presence of a team of doctors who patch the miscreant back together again. They generally do in on Friday mornings in front of the main mosque. Hmmm… This is interesting. Is the wording “…his hand shall be chopped off”, which it would have been, or “…he shall lose the use of that hand”? I mean, when you refer to the team of doctors who are there to “patch the miscreant back together again”, I assume you mean that they treat the stump. But since limb reattachment surgery is fairly common nowadays, is there anything forbidding a suitably financed offender who’s been sentenced to an amputation in Saudi Arabia to having his own team of surgeons on call to immediately sew his hand back on? And is there a penal difference for the right/left hand? Does it depend on the severity of the crime and whether the person in question is right- or left-handed? ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/27 "2008-12-22T18:59:18Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > I have another related question. Suppose you were sentenced to the stocks in medieval Britain. What could the general public do to you? Were there any limits? Could you be stabbed, murdered etc? The stock restrains the feet and was generally reserved for relatively benign crimes. The pillory restrains the hands, often the head, and occasionally the feet as well. It was reserved for more offensive crimes. You could expect to have things thrown at you and not being able to dodge them or block them (unlike someone in the stocks). So, yeah, being seriously injured, permanently maimed, or stoned to death could be possible. If it’s any indication of what they’d allow passersby to do to you, according to a tour of a torture museum I took about ten years ago in Germany, women were not to be pilloried except for prostitution or adultery. [I think you can figure that one out.](http://www.nospank.net/rape3.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/28 "2008-12-23T00:39:31Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > ?And is there a penal difference for the right/left hand? Does it depend on the severity of the crime and whether the person in question is right- or left-handed? They take the left hand the first time. SUpposedly some people then lose their right hand. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/29 "2008-12-23T00:59:46Z")
> [@1010011010](#): > > The stock restrains the feet and was generally reserved for relatively benign crimes. The pillory restrains the hands, often the head, and occasionally the feet as well. It was reserved for more offensive crimes. You could expect to have things thrown at you and not being able to dodge them or block them (unlike someone in the stocks). So, yeah, being seriously injured, permanently maimed, or stoned to death could be possible. > > If it’s any indication of what they’d allow passersby to do to you, according to a tour of a torture museum I took about ten years ago in Germany, women were not to be pilloried except for prostitution or adultery. [I think you can figure that one out.](http://www.nospank.net/rape3.htm) But if you got caught doing the raping, you would still be punished, right? I think the question was how much they could legally get away with in front of everyone. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/30 "2008-12-23T05:33:46Z")
> [@Vox\_Imperatoris](#): > > But if you got caught doing the raping, you would still be punished, right? I think the question was how much they could legally get away with in front of everyone. Depends what you mean by “in front of everyone”. If everyone knows it happens and “everyone” doesn’t do anything to prevent it, you’re getting away with it in front of everyone, IMO. I couldn’t tell you if people stood watch to protect pilloried whores or if there were rape-the-guy-in-the-pillory parties. It probably varied from town to town and whether people thought you were worth keeping healthy. Edit: Buggery might be frowned upon, but I doubt you’d get in much trouble for raping a pilloried woman. That’s effectively why they were put there. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193/31 "2008-12-23T05:37:31Z")
Well, no one really cares if you rape someone in a prison (an abhorrent situation), but you still get in trouble if you’re “occupied” while the guard walks by. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-style-punishments-i-e-cutting-off-hand-for-stealing/478193.md?page=1)