Naguîb Maḥfoȗz was one of the most influential Arabic novel writers of second half of the twentieth century. In the 1950s and 60s he brought vitality in Arabic novel writing and became the first novelist in Arabic literature who won the Nobel Prize in 1988. His novels can be categorized into three types: historical novels, social realistic novels, and post realistic novels. The Novel Al-Liṣṣ wal Kilȃb (The Thief and the Dogs) is an example of post realistic novel. In this short essay I would like to trace the conflicting interests, between the hero of this novel and the ethos of a corrupt society, which resulted in his complete failure to escape from despair and helplessness. In the process some of the techniques of the novel as applied by the novelist, which were considered rather an innovative approach reflected after some fifty years since the publication of Muhammad Husain Haykal’s famous novel Zainab (1914).