If the thumb sticks up in the closed fist, you are either capable or honest, probably the latter, as thieves are said to double theirs in.
New England.

If the thumb sticks up in the closed fist, you are either capable or honest, probably the latter, as thieves are said to double theirs in.
Source: Current Superstitions (1896), entry 142.
Fanny D. Bergen, editor.
Modern normalized navigation; the historical attribution above remains unchanged.