Both Uses

cunning
in
The Miserable Mill
(Auto-generated)

For instance, a book that began with the sentence "Once upon a time there was a family of cunning little chipmunks who lived in a hollow tree" would probably contain a story full of talking animals who get into all sorts of mischief.†
p. 1.4 *

cunning = good at achieving goals through cleverness and deception
But this book begins with the sentence "The Baudelaire orphans looked out the grimy window of the train and gazed at the gloomy blackness of the Finite Forest, wondering if their lives would ever get any better," and you should be able to tell that the story that follows will be very different from the story of Gary or Emily or the family of cunning little chipmunks.†
p. 2.8

Definitions:

(1) (cunning as in: a cunning thief)
being good at achieving goals through cleverness -- and typically through deception as well (tricking others)
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
At one time, cunning was also used as a synonym for cute.