A theef he was for sothe of corn and mele,
And that a sly, and usaunt for to stele.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The Reeve doesn’t waste time telling us the kind of sneaky character Symkyn the miller in his story is. Sly, dishonest and a thief, he steals corn and meal from his customers at the community mill, where he works grinding the grain into flour. For example, he increases his profits by padding the customers’ sacks of wheat flour with the cheaper bran flour.