Apple stealing could bring a beating in 19th-century Estonia

Children caught stealing apples in 19th-century Estonia could face a court-ordered beating, ERR reported.

The custom of going “raksus”, or taking fruit from someone else’s orchard, probably emerged about 150 years ago, when children visited a neighbour’s apple garden. The first apple orchards were established near farms at the time, and were an expensive undertaking, prompting farmers to watch their trees closely.

“A very common practice was to plant apple trees near the windows of the main living room, so they could be watched from inside. There were also dogs in the yard, and some owners patrolled themselves,” said Anneli Banner, a researcher of gardening history.

In 1874, boys aged 13 or 14 were caught stealing apples in Piilsi village near Avinurme. Some had taken eight apples, others 10 or 17.

At the time, punishments could be financial or physical. The boys’ fathers refused to appear in court because they feared they might receive the physical punishment themselves, said Piret Haav, a local history researcher from Avinurme.

Their mothers therefore went to court and later carried out the punishment, giving each boy 10 blows with a rod. It was unusual for parents to be required to administer a court sentence. Adults would not have escaped so lightly.

“The number of blows varied, as did the financial penalty. Fines ranged from 50 kopecks to several dozen roubles, while physical punishments ranged from 10 to 30 blows,” Haav said.

Today, people who go “raksus” mainly trouble pea growers, but the word itself comes from apple orchards and the sharp sound made when branches break. Iris Metsmägi, a vocabulary researcher at the Institute of the Estonian Language, said the expression is based on an onomatopoeic word describing a sudden sound.

Going “raksus” was once regarded as theft. Today, some people describe taking a few peas from a field or eating a few apples in a neighbour’s garden as a minor childhood misdeed rather than serious stealing.