I suspect it's a failed programmer's neurotic condition. And not just any programmer. A low level programmer (meaning - a programmer using low level languages such as Assembly Language, as opposed to higher languages such as C, C++, etc)
1 and 0's represent the basic digital language. "Yes" or "No" - A Logic gate that leaves no room for greys.
Stealing 1's and 0's may be the sufferer's only refuge into seeing a grey perspective that doesn't fit his or her paradigm. Of course, this grey perspective can be codified with further 1's and 0's, but a greater context is needed for that. The context needed is more 1's and 0's. Because digitally - context and greater groupings do actually provide the grey areas. A simple set of 1's and 0's may represent a single thing. And 2 sets a choice between 2 single things. But with more sets, come more choices. Thus - the grey that is perhaps being sought.
Why would this be done "in real life"?
Enter the neurosis. The thief may be taking "desperate" measures to solve a simple problem. Maybe they are under a time constraint and need to pump out a device driver that they can't quite program right. So a nerdy writer's block with a nerdy real life solution attempt - a reaching for a grey when there is only 8 or 16 bits - when maybe there needs to be 124 or 248 or even much much more.
I could be totally wrong (my grey area needs more 1 and 0 combinations), but it is the first thing that came to mind when the 1's and 0's were being sought - and those only.
Then again, perhaps the thief of thieves have a sexual fetish that involve representative numbers as symbols. Pointy, phallic shaped "1", and receiving shape "0". Maybe he or she has been reading the ridiculous tumblr crap detailing multiple "genders", and wonders how he or she could possibly *be* just a 1 or a 0 - shape wise. To have a pointy thrusting bit - or a hole shape receiving bit - too simple - and yet, it is. A collection of such shapes might be a confused person's reaction to reading that an alternate world of variety genders exist, and a specific reaction against "gender fluid".
