It'd been years since Lest had his first big heist. And he had many more after that. After a single taste of the luxurious serious wealth could provide, the thieving ram fell into a cycle of robbery, then hedonism.
While his skill as a thief was paradoxically unparalleled, his lifestyle was beginning to catch up to him faster than his usual speed could outrun.
It wasn't until after a particularly long binge of food and booze left him once more penniless and forced to take on another job, did he realise he needed to rethink his options. This of course was only after his growing belly became stuck in an escape tunnel he'd dug only months prior and fit through just fine, forcing him to embarrassingly use a handful of grease, from some meat he was saving for a later snack, to escape and narrowly avoid being caught.
He didn't want to give up his indulgent way of life, but the only skills he had to pay for it was by being a thief! Though his growing girth was making it difficult to muffle his increasingly heavy hoofsteps.

Forgoing his usual revelries, he took his most recent earnings not to the whorehouse or tavern, but to an enchanter. His wit and lies about being a wealthy merchant, who needed something to let him move heavy crates of stock, saw him coming away with a belt to make an object several pounds lighter. A belt he immediately wore on himself.
This worked well, for a time. Being fifty pounds lighter made him feel even quicker and quieter than ever!

But a few more jobs later and other problems began to present themselves. The belt was just a quick fix, and it just led to him piling on more weight until the problems started to present themselves once more.

Another trip to the enchanter got him pads for his hooves, to make his footfalls feather silent. Easy to get, he just told the enchanter he was tired of his wife yelling at him whenever he got home drunk late at night.

He stole the charms for his horns, when windows began to squeeze snug around his waist, and he was getting tired of smelling like hog-fat at the end of every job. They would make any opening widen for him to slip through easily.

As his body grew, so did his needs, so he stole a bag of holding to carry more gold and trinkets.

As his weight increased, his agility was dragged down. The knee-guards let him move as swift as the wind, and leap as high as the rooftops.

As his width swelled, he found it harder to hide the round bulge of his gut. The amulet would let him disappear completely in shadows.

As his size increased, so did his success, and his boasting of it. The mask would help make people who saw his face forget his features.

A big change, from the thin ram he once was. The price of success was a cost he was happy to pay.

Art by  pandottermon !