Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, for one, was not amused.

"That's a terrible mistake," he said. "It's exactly the wrong lesson to be teaching to people. And the government authorities that are offered such ads should exercise discretion in allowing public property, in essence, to be used that way."

Shortly thereafter, Commissioner Elliot G. Sander of the Department of Transportation, which regulates the bus shelters, announced an agreement with Gannett, which sold the advertising space, to remove the Dockers ads. Oscar Serra, a spokesman for the Commissioner, said the enticing samples would be removed, legally, by the close of the workday today.

So far, Mr. Sander said, the department knew of only one location where the pants had been stolen.

Brad Williams, senior marketing specialist for Levi Strauss, the San Francisco-based clothing manufacturer, denied that the company intended to encourage theft by putting the khakis in 40 shelters in Manhattan and 30 in San Francisco from the middle of last week through the end of the month.

"We in no way encourage people to steal," Mr. Williams said. "The ads promote pants. Period. The ads don't promote theft. We're not in the business of promoting theft. We're in the business of promoting pants."

He added: "The ad doesn't say: 'Steal these pants.' The ad says: 'Nice pants.' "

Mr. Williams did say that the possibility of theft had been discussed in planning the campaign.