Note that "crime" must be first "transgression," i.e., what we call a moral violation is first and foremost a breach of social norms.

Has Nostromo committed a "crime" by keeping the silver? He himself says that he has taken from the rich "nothing that was not lost to them already" , and indeed the silver would have been lost but for his efforts. And yet, it is still assumed to be the property of the San Tomé mine, and if revealed his hoarding would constitute theft. The ambiguous situation is a metaphor for the socialist consciousness pervading this part of the novel, in which the wealth of Sulaco is created "by the labouring hands of the people" , yet not owned by them.