Stealing a child as he slept? (10)
I believe the answer is:
kidnapping
'stealing' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'a child as he slept?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'child' could be 'kid' (synonyms) and 'kid' is located in the answer.
'as' could be 'in' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'in' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for kidnapping that I've seen before include "Abduction" , "displaying criminality" , "Abducting" , "offence" .)