daylight robbery

[merpol]

what is the origin of the saying 'daylight robbery'

[bluedolphin]

Long ago the govt introduced a tax on windows and so it became known as daylight robbery. A bank in my local area blocked up its windows to avoid paying the tax.

[Quizmonster]

Actually, the phrase is relatively recent, never having appeared in print before 1949. The 'daylight' element merely refers to the barefacedness of the act of so-called 'stealing'. In other words, you can understand someone carrying out a robbery under cover of darkness, but imagine the sheer cheek of doing such a thing in the clear light of day! It never, of course, refers to an actual robbery, but always to something the complainer is unhappy about paying.