E.g. stealing bit of crockery with a single dirty spot (10)
I believe the answer is:
dishonesty
'e g stealing bit' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'crockery with a single dirty spot' is the wordplay.
'crockery' becomes 'dish' (dish is a kind of crockery).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a single' becomes 'one' ('one' can be a synonym of 'single').
'dirty spot' becomes 'sty' (as in a pig sty).
'dish'+'one'+'sty'='DISHONESTY'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for dishonesty that I've seen before include "Crookedness" , "Untrustworthiness, insincerity" , "Graft" , "fraud" , "Bad behaviour" .)