Shoplifting, originally called "lifting", is as old as shopping. The first documented shoplifting started to take place in 16th-century London, and was carried out by groups of men called lifters. In 1591, playwright Robert Greene published a pamphlet titled "The Second Part of Cony Catching", in which he described how three men could conspire to shoplift clothes and fabric from London merchants. When it was first documented, shoplifting was characterized as an underworld practice: shoplifters were also con artists, pickpockets, pimps, or prostitutes.