Al-Matalib al-'Aliyah 3497 — The virtue of the reciters

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and submitted: "O Messenger of Allah, what do you say about a man who recited (the Qur'an) in the early part of the night, then committed theft in the last part of that same night?" The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "If he recited (sincerely) in the early part of the night, that very recitation will restrain him from stealing in the last part of the night."
The chain of this hadith contains the narrator Muhammad bin Abd al-Rahman bin Abi Layla, who is da'if (weak) because of his poor memory; however, its meaning accords exactly with this verse of the Noble Qur'an: "Indeed, prayer restrains from indecency and wrongdoing" [Surah al-Ankabut: 45], that is, prayer (and the remembrance of Allah) restrains from indecent and evil deeds.