thimblerigging

No thimblerigging rapparee, No jobber in kidnappery No filcher I !

A Sansom short story is a piece of artful thimblerigging.

He flailed away at thimblerigging in La Salle County's tax assessments, flayed the city government for lax enforcement of liquor laws.

The object of Stendhal's satire is the cheap-jack kingery of Louis Philippe�that "crowned calculating machine"�and the belowstairs thimblerigging of the corrupt, bureaucrazed regime through which he misgoverned France.

Her very serenity sometimes baffles colleagues who know the backstage thimblerigging that accompanies the rise to operatic fame.