Stealing pants nearly gets Charlie put away (7)
I believe the answer is:
larceny
'stealing' is the definition.
(I know that stealing can be written as larceny)
'pants nearly gets charlie put away' is the wordplay.
'pants' is an anagram indicator (UK informal term for 'nonsense' or 'rubbish').
'gets charlie' becomes 'c' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'put away' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are contained or put away).
'nearly' with letters rearranged gives 'lareny'.
'lareny' enclosing 'c' is 'LARCENY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for larceny that I've seen before include "Criminal activity" , "Stealing - theft" , "Theft of personal goods" , "Robbery" , "Theft of personal property" .)