The guy who arrested him was a law-and-order man to the extreme. Terry Hughes said to me, “I was prepared to hate this guy.” Then Chris Knight led Hughes back to his camp to show him where he had lived. During that walk through the woods, Officer Hughes could not help but be amazed at the way this man moved through the forest. He described him as moving like a cat—silently, with agility, grace, and dexterity.

Several police reports noted the extreme neatness of his crimes. Chris Knight was a Houdini-esque burglar, who never broke a pane of glass or smashed a door. He picked locks skillfully and would take books, torches, food, occasionally an article of clothing. But when he left the cabin, he would make sure to set the latch on the door behind him.

Despite that, one of the summer cottage owners Knight repeatedly burgled said, “He stole every bit of my piece of heaven.” He stands condemned by that, doesn’t he?

I tend to feel warmly about Knight. But it should not be forgotten that it wasn’t just hamburgers and torches he stole. It was people’s sense of security and peace of mind, things you cannot put a price tag on. He is not an angelic hero. But I believe the grey area between the romantic conception of a hermit and a serial thief makes the story richer and more complicated.

People’s reactions to Knight went through 360 degrees. Some, whose cabins he robbed, felt Knight deserved to spend the rest of his life locked up for the torture he had inflicted on them. Others who were robbed by him told me that, ultimately, he was no more trouble than the seasonal housefly. I started thinking that what you feel about him says something about Knight. But it also says something about you.

You say, “Chris Knight, with his thousands upon thousands of days alone, was an unfathomable outlier.” Did you eventually come to understand why he left the world? And what did his story teach you?

What are we all looking for in life? Contentment, liberty, the pursuit of happiness? Simply, and perhaps profoundly, Knight was not happy being around other people and believed he would find contentment in the woods. He had no idea how long he would go for, but he found what he was looking for. He found a place where he was not only content but, despite suffering mightily in winter, was filled with a sense of joy and fulfilment.

Chris Knight left because there was no good spot for him in this world. If you don’t fit in and you’re a murderer, they put you in jail. When you don’t fit in because of mental problems, there are other facilities for you. This is a guy who was extremely bright, but just did not fit in. Some people said, can’t we just give him a little bit of land and a few bags of groceries, and let him live peacefully?

Sometimes, when I’m driving in my car with my three kids fighting in the back and I’m late for an appointment, stuck in traffic and the radio is blaring bad news, a thought runs right through my heart and soul. It’s not Knight who’s crazy, it’s the rest of us. Maybe the operative question isn’t why Chris left society, but why the rest of us don’t.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Simon Worrall curates Book Talk. Follow him on Twitter or at simonworrallauthor.com.