Persian thief? (3,7)
I believe the answer is:
cat burglar
'persian thief?' is the definition.
'cat burglar' can be an answer for 'thief?' (cat burglar is a kind of thief). I am not certain of the 'persian' bit.
'persian thief?' is the wordplay.
'persian' becomes 'cat' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'thief?' becomes 'burglar' (burglar is a kind of thief).
'cat'+'burglar'='CAT BURGLAR'
(Other definitions for cat burglar that I've seen before include "What Macavity could be" , "Criminal who can climb" , "having taking ways?" , "Housebreaker entering by upper windows, skylights etc" , "Limber law-breaker" .)