The present paper describes the wish to steal a child as it appears in psychoanalysis, in myth, and in literature. It is my contention that the wish to steal a baby is the basic underpinning of the commonly experienced with to replace a child's parents and thereby rescue the child. The wish to replace a child's parents originates pre-oedipally, in identification with and envy of mother as caretaker and child bearer; in the oedipal period rivalry, guilt, fear, and revenge enter the picture. Then the wish for a baby expresses the desire to join the loved parent in a generative act, expressing creativity in the face of castration. The wish to rescue gives special thrust to the wish to re-parent. Themes of rescue through replacing parents and especially the wish to kidnap a child in order to rescue him are shown to have a special relevance to the child treatment situation, sometimes stimulating guilty and wishful fantasies in the parents, the child, and/or the therapist.