"He who steals from one citizen,” said Cato, “ends his days in fetters and chains; but he who steals from all ends them in purple and gold.”
> “Fures,” inquit [Cato], “privatorum furtorum in nervo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt, fures publici in auro atque in purpura.”
A. Gellius, Noctes Atticae, XI, 18, 18.
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Gellius/1...