From "The Theft of Nothing At All," by Edward D. Hoch:

[Professional thief Nick Velvet charges five-figure fees to steal things, but he will only steal things that "have no value." In other words, all the usual valuables and treasures are off-limits according to his rule, so clients hire him to take things that have no intrinsic value but which, in one way or another, provide the key to carrying off some highly lucrative shenanigans. It turns out to be a pretty easy rule to satisfy, because even something as simple as a literal key might qualify, though the setups are generally more indirect and creative than just, say, stealing a key to a locker that contains valuables or negotiable secret documents or the like. Then, in some of the stories, Nick has a frenemy called the White Queen--a rival thief who accomplishes, as her business cards state, "Impossible Things Before Breakfast" (she pulls her capers, some of which involve trompe-l'oeil substitutions, in the early morning, and then celebrates with a hearty repast).

[But I especially wanted to mention the story in the subject line, wherein Nick is hired to steal "nothing." Initially, the idea is just that he is being paid *not* to steal anything on a particular day, to guarantee that an opposing faction will not hire him *to* steal a set of sealed cans that are used by the state lottery and are vulnerable on that day. But it gets more interesting, because instead of stealing the cans, Nick (working for both sides now) merely disables them by opening them, which accomplishes the same purpose.]

***

"I paid you not to steal anything today!"

[....]

"I did exactly what you hired me to do. I stole nothing."

"But you opened those cans--"

"And took nothing from them. Oh, yes, I took one thing from them. By opening them I removed the vacuum from each can. I stole a vacuum, Trotter, and as any dictionary will tell you, a vacuum is a space entirely devoid of matter. A vacuum is nothing at all, and that's what I stole by opening those cans--nothing at all!"