The "thieves" here are not thieves as we understand them, but some unreasonable old people who often give their children trouble.
There is an idiom to describe the elderly, which is called "selling the old by leaning on the old". This is the kind of old man. The older they get, the weirder their temper becomes. Everything has to be given to them, and they will fly into a rage if they don't do it. It often makes children very helpless and have a headache.
Some people don't like going home after work It turned out that the old man at home had a bad temper and always quarreled with his children with trivial matters. I don't even want to go home.
Relying on the old and selling the old is an idiom in China. Pinyin means y ǐ l m ǐ o m à i l m ǐ o, which means getting old because of age. Look down on others.
From the first fold of Xie Jinwu: "I just want you to say a few words, you can't say it." Interpretation: I just asked you to say a few words. Why do you look down on others because of your age?