In Islamic thought, religious and political authority, as well as other kinds of authority (such as moral and social) is firmly grounded in the acquisition and possession of excellences. Therefore, from the early stages of hadīth formation, Shīʿite and Sunni narrators have substantiated the authenticity of leadership and religio-political authority of their desired Caliphs by relating the corresponding virtues (Fadāʾil) of them. The supporters of ʿAlī, comprising a distinct group (i.e: Shīʿa) within the larger Muslim community, were the first to circulate reports which praised his exceptional virtues. Subsequently, the partisans of Abū Bakr, mainly belonging to the Sunni tradition, are then said to have responded with reports of their own which extolled their candidates’ virtues. Thus was launched the Manāqib genre which records, the merits of Abū Bakr and ʿAlī (and of other Companions as well). This study will now focus on a yet neglected aspect of the debate in this paradigm: "Purloined Excellence of the Companions". Some of the popular traditions of Fadāʾil of a Companion in one side, has one or more counterpart in the other side. These traditions have a particular role in the early discourse on the construction of religious and political authority, particularly in the dialectics between the Sunnis and the Shi'a on this crucial topic. Surprisingly, some of the Islamic scholars have discerned this phenomena and named it as "theft". This paper will now elaborate on how a popular tradition of moral excellence in one side, is copied in the other side, in a way that could be used again. Oldest extant hadīth compilations, as well as individual works on the merits of the Companions and biographical and historical works which record their lives, up to the 9th/15th century, will be investigated, in order to shed light on an interesting phenomena in the history of Islamic hadith