As John Donne wrote "no man is an island," and similarly no microbe is truly alone. Microbes, like people, interact with each other in many different ways. Sometimes they cooperate, sometimes they compete, and sometimes they "steal" from one another. A remarkable example is how methanotrophs or "methane-eaters" interact. Methanotrophs need copper in order to consume methane. To that end, methanotrophs have evolved strategies to collect copper by producing a copper-binding compound named methanobactin. But some methanotrophs actively take up methanobactins produced by other methanotrophs to fulfill their own copper needs. Such "theft" makes them more competitive than others and controls how the overall community consumes methane.