Fagin is a manipulative, shrewd and clever leader of a pick pocket ring made up of children. He is shown to be very lazy in his habits of having children make a fortune for him in return for shelter and food. He is shown to be quite cruel, in his methods of beating The Artful Dodger and inevitably causing Nancy's fate; however, in the 1968 version of Oliver, he's shown to be quite a comic relief character.