Monsieur Honoré Cuendet's speciality is bedroom burglaries. Before he goes into action, he rents a hotel room, from where he uses a telescope to inspect the surrounding objects. During his break-in at Madame Wilton's, he is disturbed by the owner of the apartment and her stepson Gerry. The next day, the burglar's body is found completely mutilated in the Bois de Bologne. Maigret, who is currently involved in the robberies of a particularly unscrupulous gang, is initially unable to make sense of the cruel murder of the innocuous Cuendet ... Based on the 57th Maigret novel Maigret et le voleur paresseux (1961), which was published in 20 parts between 05.09. and 27.09.1961 in Le Figaro. The German title of the novel (in various translations) is Maigret und der faule Dieb.