What is the difference between a thief and a person who works and earns his bread in the sweat of his brow? They are both thieves relative to the spiritual. There is a completely different gradation or value system here and attitude toward a person. If a thief continues to steal and at the same time studies the laws of the Upper Worlds, perceiving emptiness in his life and desiring to become corrected, but still continues to steal, he is a million times more preferable in our eyes to an honest, noble worker, a family-man, respectable and so on. It is because he is on the path to the Creator, but the other one can be just a brute, but a respectable kind.
That is, there is a difference in how, relative to what, you evaluate a person. If we evaluate him relative to society in this life, then you are correct. Of course a normal, conscientious and well mannered citizen is preferable in the eyes of society and naturally we have to respect and value him for this. But we should beat up and chase after the thief and put him in jail. This is correct in our world and it has to be this way, but only from the point of view of society. From the point of view of spiritual ascent we have to look at things differently, and then we evaluate people and their actions in a completely different way. Therefore, you should not mix all of this together.