I'm sorry, I don't think that's a good alternative. Plenty of thieves in the US have gone on to be solid citizens. Missing a hand or two they wouldn't have been very good taxpayers.

I visited Mazatlan in 1976, was there for about a week. I saw a guy begging on the street a couple of times, missing both hands, non-jagged stumps on both sides. Word wise he had been punished for thievery. Yeah, that'll work, make someone into a lifetime beggar for having stole a few things. If you've not read Les Miserables I recommend it. Find an abridged version, the unabridged is only for groupies of the story. I made it halfway through it once, interesting, but too much.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K