In short, it means you should think hard about trusting those with a vested interest in your downfall. And a modern incarnation of Ilium's tough lesson took place at City College of San Francisco this week.

Police were on Monday called out by an aggrieved man who suffered that most City College of crimes: Someone robbed his locker. But then it got interesting.

The victim's backpack was filched, but unusually enough, he later found the pack. The 28 bucks he had within was gone. But the lock that had been on his locker -- which the thief managed to remove -- was located safely within the recovered backpack.

The police report detailing this incident doesn't note what counsel the officers gave the victim, but it seems the wise move would be to avoid re-using this lock. In fact, the thief's suggestion is about as subtle as a dog grabbing his leash: "Hey, pal -- here's this perfectly good lock! Why waste it?"

Hopefully, cooler heads prevailed. One must beware thieves bearing locks.