Fagin and Oliver Twist Fagin is a fictional character in Charles Dickens 's novel Oliver Twist . In the preface to the novel, he is described as a "receiver of stolen goods". He is the leader of a group of children (the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates among them) whom he teaches to make their livings by pick-pocketing and other criminal activities, in exchange for shelter. Mrs Fagin of Talangas That is what young Maharaja Duleep Singh once called Queen Victoria . The biggest pickpocket of them all - the empress of the mighty British Empire. The receiver of stolen goods, stolen kingdoms, and stolen jewels smuggled away from his homeland - Punjab by her loyal viceroys, men like Lord Dalhousie , with immaculate records and evidence of guilt. The thousands of pearls and emeralds and rubies and diamonds taken from Lahore Toshakhana and presented to her by the East India Company. After the Great Exhibition of 1851, the jewels were locked away in the Tower of London, st...