While playing hide-and-seek with the Wood-elves, Bilbo thinks to himself, "I am a burglar that can't get away, but must go on miserably burgling the same house day after day." What is Bilbo really describing?

This quote is a great example of Tolkein's prose. The irony can be found in the fact that Biblo never wanted to be a burglar, and yet here he is fulfulling his role a little more everyday. Bilbo said the words above while wandering in an endless circle through the Elvenhalls, when the dwarves were imprisoned, and he was alone. He was forced to steal food in order to survive.