system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: I'm laying naked in bed when someone breaks into my house, steals something and leaves. I bolt out after them without any clothes on. Can I get into legal trouble for being nude while chasing a criminal?
gpt
Legality is a difficult subject, because the legal system was designed to be at least somewhat subjective. The law itself states whether or not you are legally allowed to do something, but the judicial process, including getting "caught," serves as a way to evaluate whether or not a punishment is actually deserved for the crime. For example, indecent exposure (being naked in public) is technically illegal, yet it is unlikely that an elderly person with mental deficiencies would be punished for running naked from a nursing home in an episode of delerium, even if the law did not have any written exceptions for people who were mentally compromised. They *could* get in trouble for it, but most of the time, no one would try to press charges.

So, while technically you *could* get in trouble for being naked in public in this case, there would have to be other circumstances to warrant most people seeking to punish you for this, like if you happened to run by an elementary school with a bunch of children outside, because then it could be considered exposing oneself to a minor, or something like that. If, while chasing the criminal, a police officer stopped you, and you explained that you were chasing a burglar, it is likely that any police officer with good morals and priorities would just respond, "Well I'll try to catch him, here's a blanket so you can cover up, now go back home and wait there," because your actions were not really "criminal" while still being technically illegal. Hope that makes sense.