Two quick questions

[SnowFink]

So we recently bought Munchkin along side the 4th expansion.

Yesterday we were playing and I had the thief class. Our argue was about whether or not I could steal a card in game and take it to my hand. Lets say friend A is a Mage and I steal him a Mage object that he has equipped. Since Im not a mage and hence I cant equip it. Can I take to my hand to sell it later ? Because they were telling me that if I couldt equip the object I had to discard it right away since according to them you cant move cards in game to the hand by any means.

Also another argue we had. Theres a card that allows you to change squires gender(Cant remember the name right now sorry >.<)If player A is a woman and has a woman-only squire does changing the gender of the squire make it male-only ? If not whats the purpose of changing the squires gender at all?

Thanks in advance for your help!