(Sym)Pathetic Bandits

In my current D&D game, our party was just attacked by bandits; however, with a few exceptions, these bandits don't seem to be very good at their job. Their attacks don't land very often, and when they do, they don't hit very hard. Meanwhile, the much more competent adventurers they're fighting are, for the most part, proving to be much better combatants than the bandits. These bandits are all almost certainly going to die.

Noting the general lack of skill these bandits possess, someone noted that these bandits must be fairly desperate if they were willing to attack us, and that caused me, through my character, to feel a twinge of sympathy for them. It wasn't long ago that my character was, himself, a penniless street bandit, sneaking and stealing to get by. He was one of the lucky ones. He was good at burglary, and he was able to steal what he needed without having to fight for it. Then one day, he stole something that gave him magical power, and now he no longer needs to steal at all. My character was lucky to get out of the same situation that the bandits he's fighting are now in, and he feels a certain amount of empathy for them. Granted, he will continue to fight them to defend himself, his friends, and their belongings, but after this battle, I plan to put my character through some serious introspection, and possibly an alignment change, assuming he survives the fight.

I think that there are a lot of bandits in the world who aren't actually bad people; they're just desperate. Many of them just don't have enough to get by and can't get what they need through any other way than stealing. Is it still morally wrong for them to steal? I don't know. I wouldn't want to be the one who has to judge them. When a person is in a desperate situation, they're liable to do just about anything, and stealing isn't the worst crime a desperate person might commit. I don't want to be stolen from, and I will prevent a theft, if I can, but I would rather have a person successfully steal from me than have them die trying or starve. If I were in my character's shoes, I'm not sure how hard I would fight to defend my stuff. Heck, I'm not sure how hard I would fight to defend my stuff. While I believe that stealing is wrong and that most of the people who do it have better options, I have to admit that there may be some people who have no better choice than to steal. Some people genuinely are that desperate, and I feel sorry for them. Some people haven't been as lucky as I have been, and I have some sympathy for them.