Yes, it’s stealing. I got an extra 20 back in chance once and didn’t realize till I got home. I went back and returned it. If it was 5 or less, I may not make the effort. Depends I guess.
Of course taking things that have value and are not yours or freely and knowingly given to you by their owner (not the cashier or wait staff) is stealing. There is no gray area here.
So what about the scenario in which the owner is mistaken as to the true value of the item, such as the garage sale knickknack that is actually a historical artifact worth a lot of money?
What makes taking advantage of that kind of mistake of fact OK (presumably, though maybe you feel otherwise) and not taking advantage of, say, a mistaken senior citizen discount?
Many years ago my Mom ordered a putter for her Dad from Sears (it was a very nice and fairly expensive one). She went and picked up the package and once home realized there were two in the box. She called and they put her on hold for quite some time. They finally came back and told her everything in their system said there was only one and if she brought the other one back it would be a nightmare in their system to straighten out… I got a very nice putter out of the deal (this was the 70’s)
In the 80’s I wanted a new stereo for my car and went to an upscale place an hour from where I lived. They had just gotten some new Alpines that had just been released. I picked out the bottom of the line (I was in college, but still a very nice system) and paid for it and brought it home. When I got home I realized they gave me the middle of the line deck. I called and again after a long time on hold they told me that their inventory checked out and to just enjoy the bonus.
If I stole in either of these situations the store didn’t think so.
Yes, getting back too much in change, being charged the wrong amount, getting a discount you aren’t eligible for - all are stealing, albeit without intent beforehand.
I think I told this story before - I was at Wal-Mart, picked out a pair of sneakers listed at $7.95 and the cashier rang it up as $5. I called her attention to it, and she shrugged and said whatever it rang up as was the price. AFAICT that is not stealing - the cashier, as agent for Wal-Mart, told me what the price was, and I agreed.
Anytime you are paying less than the agreed on price, and the responsible agent representing the seller is not aware of it, it is stealing. If you bring it to their attention and they don’t object, you and the seller have agreed on a new price.
Regards,
Shodan
nm
I don’t see it as theft. I bring something to the counter, the merchant tells me how much it’ll cost to leave the store with me and I pay that. If the merchant says that it’s ten dollars to bring a bagful of diamonds home with me than $10 is what it costs.
Now if I think the price is too high then I’ll counter offer. $15 for butter? Your sign says $1.50. Then the merchant can continue to demand $15 or agree to demand $1.50. The fact that I would do this doesn’t put any onus on me to tell the merchant to charge me more in the previous example.
Now, morally, I’d likely tell the merchant that they are in error. But I don’t think that a failure to do so constitutes theft.
It’s certainly dishonest and unethical, and not something I would do. I’m undecided whether I’d call it “stealing”; but that’s a question of semantics, not of morals/ethics.
What if I’m not sure whether it was an error or not? (For example, there’s a sale price or special deal that might or might not apply to my purchase.) Then I might or might not point out the “error” or ask for clarification, depending on various factors—how much $ the difference was, how big a hurry I was in, how busy the store was at the time, how approachable the cashier was, etc. As a rule of thumb, if I would have said/done something if the error had been in the store’s favor, then I feel I have the obligation to say something if the possible error is in my favor.
If there’s definitely an error (on the part of the cashier) that benefits me, but I don’t notice/discover it until later, I’d feel an obligation to correct the error if the cost to me to do so (in time, trouble, gas money, etc.) would be less than the cost to the store/cashier (in lost money, disciplinary action, etc.) should I just let it go. In borderline cases, I would still try to repay, but would not consider it stealing should I fail to do so. If the error had been my fault in the first place, I would have a much greater obligation to fix it.
If I lied or misrepresented myself or the situation in order to get the discount (e.g. by lying about my age, or getting a discount on damaged merchandise when I was the one who damaged it), then yes, it’s stealing.
If I’m not misrepresenting myself in any way, it’d depend on the circumstances. In particular, if the cashier and I both know that I don’t technically qualify for the discount, but she decides to give it to me anyway, and has the authority to do so (e.g. she goes ahead and charges me the “early bird” price that only lasts until 5:00 even though it’s now 5:05), I don’t see anything wrong with accepting, though I do with insisting.
If Joe Diamond, the owner of Diamond Dealer store says that the bag of diamonds is $10, then yes, everyone has agreed on a new price. But if the new clerk who has just been working there rings it up for $10, I’ll strongly suspect that it’s not because I’ve been able to come to a new agreement with the store, but because the new clerk has made a mistake. Clerks sometimes have discretion to give small discounts, but I doubt that a new cashier would have the ability and authority to give a massive, thousands dollar discount. And if I walk out the door after just paying $10 for a bag of diamonds, I’ll be taking advantage of that mistake. And that possibly the police might come talk to me regarding this, because regardless of my intentions, it might very well look like on the cameras that I’m a swindler trying to confuse the poor clerk who just started his new job.
Poor wording on my part. A cashier has no control over what the scanner tells her, so it’s not her error. If the shelf tag says $20, and the cashier scans it at $15, it’s either an entry problem on the computer, the item is incorrectly marked on the shelf, or the price has changed. It’s not my responsibility to manage their inventory for them.
I simply accept the unintentional discount. 
The person that owns an object sets the asking price. It isn’t my responsibility to educate them about their own things. They can check the value of their things as easily as I can, so if they elect not to, that’s their business.
A mistaken discount is given under false pretenses. It’s up to me to correct pretenses about myself.
That’s a distinction, but you haven’t justified it. Why is a mistake as to valuing your object not morally relevant, but a mistake as to putting the proper price on it is morally relevant?
Valuing your object is your job. It has nothing to do with me.
I’m not sure what you mean about “putting the proper price on it.” If you mismarked it, how would I know?
No, whoever is authorized to tell me “That’s be X dollars” and collect X dollars from me is who gives me the price. Whether or not Joe Diamond hires competent representatives isn’t really here nor there. In this case the “merchant” is whoever is authorized to stand behind the counter, announce amounts of money requested and collect them. If they announce $10 for a bagful of diamonds and receive ten dollars then no theft has taken place (barring collusion between myself and the merchant’s representative).
Is that your legal and ethical answer?
From my initial answer upthread:
Edit: Technically, my moral answer would be to correct the merchant. My ethical answer would be that an agreed upon transaction took place; I don’t know that a consumer code of ethics really exists. But my morals would trump my ethics.
Not stealing. Possibly unethical.
I used to have a friend who worked at Target. She used to give me the most outrageous discounts when I came in while she was working. I did not ask her to do this, nor did I need any discounts, and it made me very uncomfortable. I didn’t say anything, and I avoided Target when she was working there (well, frankly, and at all other times, too). She said “everybody did it for their friends.”
I don’t think I was stealing, but I was kinda receiving stolen goods, and I was embarrassed about it, but what are you gonna do? Snitch on your friend? You don’t snitch on your friends unless they are doing something dangerous. I figured she would get caught, as she was pretty blatant.
A few months after I quit going to Target this friend sorta stole a guy I was dating. I say “sorta” because I think if I really had him she could not have taken him, and I’m not possessive like that anyway. However, at that point I probably would have reported her, if I’d had the energy.
But nobody’s perfect, and I confess to taking advantage of Target’s very good return policy. I returned a tape recorder that quit working (because it had been dropped into a swimming pool) and I think I took back a couple of things I hadn’t actually bought at Target, but at least I bought them in a store. I never did the thing where you buy a vacuum cleaner or carpet shampooer, clean up your place so you get your deposit back, then return the cleaner/shampooer but I sure knew people who did, and Target as far as I could tell condoned this by allowing it.
You sure as hell did. It’s pretty simple. You knew they made a mistake, you got more than you should have, it isn’t your money, you walked out.
That’s fraud.
If you are aware it is happening and you do nothing to correct it, then yes, it is ethically a ‘form’ of theft.
It’s not picking someone’s pocket or shoplifting but it is still dishonest. To me, it becomes ‘stealing’ once the amount is above, oh say, $100 or so. And for those who claim ‘As long as I pay what the cashier asks’, no, ethically you’re still committing theft. Unless you have a legitimate kind of mental infirmity that makes you incapable of understanding the value of things no reasonable person can be expected to claim ignorance of this, especially for higher monetary amounts.
Even if you’re buying something totally unfamiliar for someone else etc. in that case it would be reasonable to assume you’d be even ***more ***careful with the other person’s money and know ahead of time the values.
Not gonna claim I’ve never done it, but never for a large amount and never in the last 25 years or so (back in my ill-spent youth…) 