In Oliver Twist, why is Oliver released by the magistrate after his arrest for theft?
After Oliver is arrested for supposedly pick pocketing, he faints when he is sentenced by the magistrate Mr. Fang to three months hard labor. Just then a witness storms the courtroom and says that he saw all and can testify that Oliver is innocent. Oliver, still unconscious, is taken home by Mr. Brownlow and nursed back to health.
The magistrate had no choice but to release Oliver once it was determined through an eye-witness account that Oliver was innocent and had not committed the theft. Oliver was still laboring under the impression that Artful Dodger and the other boys were practicing for some sort of game. So when they actually stole from the man on the street and ran away, Oliver was dumbfounded and couldn't even find it within the powers of his understanding to run also.
Why was Oliver released by the magistrate in Oliver Twist?
Oliver Twist has been put before the magistrate (colloquially known as "the beak")...
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on a charge of pickpocketing. He's entirely innocent of the charge, but, as the boys who were with him outside the bookshop were able to escape, he was left holding the bag, so to speak, and immediately came under suspicion. After a long chase through the streets of London and a punch in the nose for good measure, a dazed Oliver stands before the court, unsure of what on earth's going on. It looks like he's been caught red-handed; the way things are going, he's on his way to prison.
Indeed, the magistrate, the appropriately named Mr. Fang, actually sentences Oliver to three months' hard labor. Thankfully, however, Oliver is saved from this terrible punishment by the arrival of a bookseller. It was outside his shop that the theft took place, and the bookseller is able to state categorically that it wasn't Oliver who picked the gentleman's pocket. As there is no evidence of Oliver's guilt, the magistrate has no choice but to let him go.