Hands Off
by Robert Sheckley
Galaxy Science Fiction (April, 1954); UK No. 18 (September, 1954), pp. 54-63.
SF novelette offering a two-pronged narrative, following the actions firstly of an unscrupulous human pirate crew, and secondly of the principled alien whose near-totally incompatible physical makeup renders it impossible for them to steal his spaceship. A whimsical, waggish tale of comeuppance.