A fence is someone who receives stolen goods and resells them, acting as a barrier between the customer and knowledge of the actual provenance of the items on display.
“A lawyer is an honest employment, so is mine [acting as a fence]. Like me too, he acts in a double capacity, both against rogues, and for ‘em; for ‘tis but fitting that we should protect and encourage cheats, since we live by them.”
John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1728).
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