Songfacts®:

• Also known simply as "Pick A Pocket Or Two," this is one of the more memorable songs from the award winning musical Oliver!, which was written in its entirety by the London-born composer Lionel Bart (1930-99). The show is an adaptation of the famous Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist; it opened in the West End in 1960, and on the big screen (directed by Carol Reed) in 1968.
  
  "You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two" is sung by Fagin, who is portrayed here as a comic and almost avuncular figure; this song is Oliver's introduction to the netherworld of pre-pubescent thievery. In Victorian England though, the penalties for theft especially for such overt dishonesty as pickpocketing were extremely severe, and a real life Fagin - of which there were many - would not have been so whimsical about his profession.
• The song contains some clever rhyming:
  
  Charity's fine
  Subscribe to mine
  Go out and pick a pocket or two
  
  In the film, Ron Moody delivers an enchanting performance, backed by a choir of pickpocketing scamps. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
• On the 1997 Friends episode "The One With All The Jealousy," Joey (Matt LeBlanc) sings this at an audition for a Broadway musical.
• This was also used on the sci-fi anthology series Electric Dreams in the 2017 episode "Impossible Planet."