I think it's petty crime that doesn't pay, indeed. Stealing a pack of smokes from the convenience store just doesn't pay; manipulating regulations to benefit from lax enforcement of environmental law or gain tax breaks or otherwise pad your bank account is gentlemanly.

I mean that in a somewhat literal sense: it was once true that "gentleman" meant a man possessing property, a member of the gentry. The section titled Sir George Sitwell in the Wikipedia article on the word "gentleman" is amusing and to the point.