Naguib Mahfouz’s story the Thief and the Dogs follows the story of the recently freed Said Mahran, a thief who was part of a revolutionary group before his incarceration.  Said feels that he was betrayed by his former co-conspirators and wishes to enact revenge upon them, but if he could reunite with his daughter, Sana, he believes that he could forget revenge and move on.  However, he finds that his daughter is with his former friend Ilish, who has married his wife, and both his wife and Sana reject him.  With this betrayal, he turns to his old mentor, Rauf Ilwan, but finds that Rauf no longer believes in what he taught Said, and Said finally decides to kill all those who betrayed him and take back his daughter.  Said turns to his old friends for help in this, getting a gun from the tavern owner Tarzan and a hiding place from Nur, a woman who loved him and wishes to make him love her.    

            Said tries to enact his revenge, but each time he fails and only manages to kill innocent people.  He is forced to stay cooped up in Nur’s house, cut off from the world and only able to see what effect his revenge is having through the news Nur brings home.  He is constantly watching the graveyard outside of Nur’s house, as it is his one way of seeing others when cooped up and he is slowly becoming divorced from reality with this type of life.  Eventually, Nur, who had become increasingly distressed over Said and his actions, fails to come home, and Said foolishly tries to exact his revenge just to escape the apartment, only managing to get killed in his disturbed state of mind.