Little children were not killed for stealing bread, at least not in the UK. The penalties for theft, depending on the value of the goods stolen, were whipping, branding, transportation, and (only if the goods were worth £2 or more) death by hanging. A whole loaf of bread would be worth about 4 pence. There is a good account of 18th century justice in Britain on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey website (www.oldbaileyonline.org) where you can read transcripts of trials from 1674 to 1834.

For fucksake. Britain is not England. Scottish law was nothing like that punitive, ever. Nobody got hanged for stealing in Scotland, nor did the Old Bailey deal with Scottish cases.