How does one steal the sukkah? He does it by evicting his fellow out of it and then sitting there. Alternatively, he can build his sukkah on public land, thus stealing it from the public.
The land is different from movable objects because usually, we say that it cannot be stolen. Someone may occupy it, but the owner still hopes to eventually get it back, so effectively, one does not steal the land but squats on it. Rabbi Eliezer says that the mitzvah does not count because the sukkah should belong to you, just as the lulav. The Sages argue and say that there is no requirement that the sukkah belongs to you; you can sit in the sukkah of your fellow.
This is different from stealing the wood to make the sukkah. A certain elderly lady came to Rav Nachman and said that a group of powerful people stole her wood and are sitting in a stolen sukkah. He told her that all she can claim is the cost of the wood but that the sukkah is theirs. This has to do with another law. If one steals a beam and builds it into his house, there is an additional enactment that he does not have to return the beam because it would mean destroying the house. This was enacted to benefit the people who would repent and want to return the stolen goods - but not destroy the house. Now, this enactment worked against the lady. Rav Nachman told the students, "She is just a crier."
Art: Opportunity makes the thief by Paul-Charles Chocarne-More
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