How cattle steal and count your inventory (9)
I believe the answer is:
stocktake
'inventory' is the definition.
(I know that stocktake is a type of inventory)
'how cattle steal and count your' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'cattle' could be 'stock' (I've seen this before) and 'stock' is located in the answer.
'steal' could be 'take' (to steal is to take without permission) and 'take' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stocktake that I've seen before include "Check on shop holdings" , "auditing process" .)