FACT AND FICTION

As a matter of fact, fact and fiction tend to overlap.

Victor Hugo drew from contemporary (19th-century) criminal records when he created the Valjean plot of Les Misérables: anti-hero Jean Valjean is condemned to five years of imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread to survive, mirroring then-ocurring real-life scenarios.

In our days' Spain, the beggar that broke into a Barcelona supermarket on the 9th of September 2009 (09-09-09!), and stole a French bread, was sentenced to half a year of imprisonment.

The current crisis was only dawning, and incidents such as this one were only the tip of the iceberg.
Nothing has changed in Catholic Europe since Hugo's days: the wealthy and powerful get away with all the money, while the poor lose their freedom for stealing their daily bread.