I never steal and have never stolen

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While brought to a shopping trip by my family, I tried to steal a single green decorative plastic grape put of a store for furniture and housewares in 6th grade because I'd listened to a conversation of my classmates about that everybody steals because its normal. I figured that if I stole something as fascinating to me as a plastic grape, I'd become a person like them (and that they'd stop bullying me and that the teachers and other adults would stop abusing me).

I managed to put the grape into my pocket and carry it with me undetected until we came close to the exit of the store. I couldn't get over thinking that stealing being wrong and put the grape back onto a nearby table with more decorative fruit. I kept this to myself because I always felt that not pulling through with something you started is totally awkward.

Of course, at 12 years I was super afraid of being yelled at too for trying to do something that I'd memorised was "bad" and done by "bad people".

(Bad folks don't get sweets and cuddly toys, do they. A kid's logic.)

That doesn't work. Why is it okay to steal from one if it's not okay to steal from another? To steal is either okay, or wrong.

Can you take my test (You don't have to know your AQ-score)?

It explains your questions here.

The store employees usually never even notice and/or don't care unless they actually catch the shoplifter in the act unlike if you steal from an individual person who notices either way. Also, I used Wal-mart as an example cause I remember on Black Friday a few years back that they made 1 billion dollars(net) in just that one day. lol

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I have accidentally stolen before or nearly did. Just don't put anything in your pockets. For one, a store employer could catch you doing it or see it on camera and assume you are trying to steal and also you could forget you even had it in there. Just imagine the alarm going off at the door when you walk out and then to find you had forgotten the item in your pocket, bam they think you were trying to steal it. I have gotten away with it every time as a child and there were times I put my hands in my pocket and find I have the item in here and then think "So that is where it went" because I thought I had misplaced the item while shopping forgetting I had stuck it in my pocket. I don't do it anymore.


Last month I was at my son's playgroup and I saw this jar of lolly pops. I decided I wanted one so I took one. As I was sucking on it I finally noticed a price sticker on the jar on the other side and it said 50 cents. I had stolen the sucker and I didn't have 50 cents to pay it nor have any cash on me. I also couldn't take the candy back because it was opened and sucked on already so I kept on eating it. The employers there saw me with it and didn't do a thing about it but i was so embarrassed so today when I went back to the play group, I took 50 cents with me and gave it to the lady there paying for the sucker I took.

I once took a carton of milk in 4th grade not even realizing you had to pay for it. I didn't have anything to drink so I took a carton of milk from the basket in the lunch room. Then my classmate asked me where I got it and I told her. She asked me if I paid for it and I said no and she told me I was supposed to pay for it so i stole it. But I had already opened it so it as too late and I drank it anyway and I said I won't do it again next time because now I know. I could have paid for it the next day asking my parents for money for the innocent mistake I made but i didn't think of it then. It would be so awkward if I came to that school today with the money asking how much did the milk cost in 1995 and 1996 when I was in 4th grade because I stole a milk that year that one time not even realizing you had to pay for it.

I once took a bus schedule book from the ticket office where you go and buy bus passes or tickets. I thought it was free to take and I was at home when I noticed the price on the back and I was a thief. I took it back a week later and put it back where I got it. It wasn't very important I have the book anyway.

I am also guilty of sampling in stores not even realizing it's stealing. Sometimes it's hard to resist so I don't really go near those things. I pass by them and that is it. I don't think lot of people realize it's stealing so there are signs that say No Sampling.

People who claim to be "Honest Abe" tend to be lying.
Think about it: as a child, you probably took a cookie from the jar without asking - that was stealing, pilfered a pencil or eraser (whether intentionally or not) - that too is theft. Perhaps you took a bite out of your sibling's food without permission/ the other's knowledge as a kid - again, stealing. I'm sure people committed theft before they can even remember doing such due to age (youth) or stuck your grubby hands in a candy dish and took a fistful of M&Ms without first obtaining proper permission.

one time when I was little at the store I stole a pocket full of pencil toppers. sometimes if theres no one at the register at a store and im waiting ill take a candy bar for the lack of service.

also something I dont really consider stealing but my dad likes to go to construction sites after the job is done and pick up any materials left behind. he does it mostly at jobs he was working. you would be surprised what gets left behind or just thrown in the dumpster. one time he brought home an entire trailer load of aluminum scrap and an entire walk in freezer.

I like to throw a tangent in the whole stealing subject. Tell me what you think of these "so called" acts of stealing.

1) Software/picture/video/book/music Piracy: Do you think it's wrong to download from bit torrent or kazaa even though you are not making a profit from it?

2) Price tag changing: Back in the 1970's/80's (Before they has bar code scanners although it is possible to beat those too.) When I was a kid, I would peel a price tag off a lower price item and put it on a higher priced item so I could get the item for lower then what there asking price was.

Is taking a toy out of someone's hand also stealing? My son does that. I have to stop him of course whenever I catch him doing it. But that is normal toddler behavior because they don't understand the social rules of sharing and waiting your turn and not taking something out of someone's hand they had first.

I have to say in the last 3 pages you guys are all talking about some very minor theft. I think serious crime is so far out your experience that the mole hills seem like mountains.

I don't see the first part as stealing. I have also downloaded old computer games from DOS and played them on my computer and I still have them. So I got to play a few computer games I played when I was in elementary school like Playroom, Treehouse, Block Out, Treasure Mountain, Gizmos and Gadgets, Spellbound, Treasure Cove, Reading and Me, Reader Rabbit (not the 1991 version sadly) and also The Incredible machine. That was my favorite games in 5th grade along with Gizmos and Gadgets.

I don't see the second part as stealing, it's just being dishonest.

It doesn't, that's why I said "not all stealing". What I meant is that stealing isn't inherently wrong. A specific act of stealing might also do other things, like increasing inequality, which makes that specific act wrong (or right). But it's those 'side effects' that make the act wrong, not stealing itself.

What's problematic about the word stealing is that it's defined by the law of the country it takes place in, it's not some universal idea that is the same everywhere. If it doesn't mean the same everywhere it's hard to claim that all stealing is wrong, unless you derive your morality from the laws currently in place where you currently live. So one has to look at the effects of specific acts of stealing and see whether those are wrong or right.

There is that tendency to "awfulize" things. As for me, I once joined a band made up mostly of convicted felons and it was a fair deal of eye-opening. I've heard stories from them that I can see happening though my time with them was rather low-key; a lot of drinking, drugging and debauchery. I may have been nowhere close to their notches on the bedposts but I did my best to drink them all under the table.

But to sync with the quote box; I think it was of some amusement to them when I was freaking out over a minor bench warrant. They used to tell me constantly: "don't sweat the misdemeanors"

I do not, nor have I ever, done either of these things.

That's why they were felons. Misdemeanors bring attention to you. If your thing is doing bad things attention is the last thing you want. Only a fool doesn't sweat the misdemeanors.

Last edited by Rascal77s on 10 Feb 2013, 5:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.