The ending always confused me, because I never understood why they never went back and got the money from Larry. I just watched it all the way through recently and realized that they suggest that TBL stole the money. I asked my brother, who wrote a paper in college about the movie, and he was surprised I concluded otherwise.

In my interpretation, TBL did not steal the money, he’s just an asshole who felt no need to explain himself to a couple of bums who stole money from him. Larry had the money. The fact that the brand new Corvette outside wasn’t his was ironic, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t steal the money.

Look at the photo above. That is the picture definition of the word “stonewalling.” That is the death stare of a teenager with a million dollars under his bed who intends to keep it. The Dude came away with the impression he had the money, as he tells Jackie Treehorn that’s who has it. Jackie just doesn’t take him seriously.

When the Dude is presenting Walter with his theory of the case, his main point is that TBL didn’t go after him over the missing money, and he reasons it’s because TBL knows he never gave him the money. But that’s just his theory.

TBL has just embezzled money from a charitable foundation. If he goes to the police, he implicates himself in a very serious crime. And he’s not sure the Dude stole it. He seemed taken in the limo with the Dude’s suggestion that they’re trying to further extort him. At one point, there’s a cutaway to a scene of TBL scheming over the money and briefcase, but that’s just the Dude’s imagination.

Then when confronting TBL with their theory of the case, TBL responds oddly, but he doesn’t make any incriminating statements. He first says “You have your story I have mine. I say I entrusted the money to you and you stole it.” That does sound kind of like how a scheming bad guy would talk, but TBL is a scheming bad guy, which is why he’s so often honored fo all of his civic… uhh.. so he has probably thought it through already.

When he accuses TBL of trying to pin the crime on a “deadbeat,” TBL quips, “well, aren’t ya?” Again, this isn’t an inculpating statement, it just sounds that way, because TBL is human paraquat. It’s a non-denial in the face of a damning charge. But TBL doesn’t feel a need to respond, because he knows he didn’t steal the money, and he’s pretty sure they did.