To be honest, in some places that was expected and even welcomed, but in order for it to be ethical you would have to ask. I knew someone with a similar collection, who only smoked the rare doobie, but she asked, and often got an Okay.
Yep, it is cheap advertising.
For me, just the little packets and paper napkins Oh, once, it was a roomservice cloth napkin, as I had a bloody nose and was ashamed to put it back on the tray, and didn’t want the busboy or whoever to be grossed out.
Raises hand. I have it.
Actually I have the one my late husband stole from his college dining hall 60+ years ago. I use it all the time.
You Felon!
I know some who used to take a teaspoon from the airplane, whenever they flew. But that was back when airlines had real cutlery marked with the company logo.
My story is this: I’ve got a few cocktail glasses leftover from going out to club shows a lot, a long time ago.(Doubtful these clubs still serve anything in glass anymore, pandemic or no). Anyway, sometimes you’re so into it on the dance floor and happen to have a large-ish vintage purse. Well, pop the empty in there if you’re not going back for another drink. Less stealing and more forgetting. : ) Now I’ve got a few memorable- show toothbrush holders.
When I was growing up we had about half a dozen drink glasses from Steak’n’Shake in our cupboard. I think dad pilfered them before he and mom were married. These were from the days when carhops would bring food out to your car on actual plates with actual metal flatware and actual glass drink glasses.
And it doesn’t exactly apply to thread because it wasn’t theft, but it’s a memory that cracks me up every time I think about it. My wife and I were out to breakfast with her parents several years ago. I had asked the waitress for some extra napkins. She came by and dropped about a one inch stack of napkins on the table. My mother-in-law’s hand shot out and grabbed the entire stack and shoved them in her purse. I muttered something like “I guess we didn’t need those after all…” (She was notorious for going through enormous amounts of paper goods.)
I forgot to mention the sake set I swiped from California Beach. Any other SoCal natives remember that place?
There was one time I was really tempted to steal some glasses, but didn’t. I was at the big beer garden in Munich. My dad and I ordered some of those big one liter mugs of beer. Apparently they charge a 1 Euro deposit for the mugs on top of the price of the beer, because they had problems with tourists stealing them. So we drink our beers, but since we’d gotten there kind of late by the time we’d finished them the beer stand was closed, and there was no one there to return our deposits when we returned the mugs. So we debated just keeping them; we had sort of paid for them after all. But we didn’t; we left them there on the counter.
When I was a kid, I was convinced that those red cups they served drinks to you at Pizza Hut (back when Pizza Hut was a sit down restaurant) made soda taste better. So my mom stole one for me.
My family has a set of salt and pepper shakers (glass with silver plated tops) that was apparently stolen by my grandfather decades ago. That’s really all I know of though.
One Euro? The beer garden in Munich with 1 litre steins charged four when I was there.
I didn’t take one, but several other people at the event I was at did.
My grandpa had an extensive set of cutlery with assorted airline logos on- he was most disappointed about the time he got bumped up to the Royal suite on Saudi airlines (some kind of deal with Shell, who he worked for, that was the only seat left)- they frisked him on the way out and got the gold-plated stuff back…
I worked at an airport coffee shop for a while, you would not believe the number of teaspoons that got stolen- we ordered them by the hundred, every few weeks.
This was around 2006, so they may well have raised the price since then.
Most of my silverware is from the stuff my housemates liberated from a college cafeteria ca. 1991. Someone, I truly don’t know who, grabbed a bin each of big spoons, small spoons, forks and knives. I still have UMaine logos on my cutlery.
Fly in Business or First. You still get nice meals, with real glassware and metal cutlery.
I’ve got a number of Air Canada teaspoons. Not necessarily intentionally, though. I’m usually still working on my coffee during the descent, the flight attendants are strapped in, and I’m left with a coffee cup and a spoon. The cup goes in the seat pocket, but the spoon would get lost at the bottom of the pocket. It would be much safer in the pocket of my sport coat. 
ID checks out.
My old GF was an heiress. When we were going out, we loved to eat at a ‘healthy’ all-you-can-eat buffet, particularly for their weekend brunch.
She’d carry a big tote, replete with a kitchen-sized trash bag within.
And she’d gradually fill that setup with muffins – primarily blueberry but it almost didn’t matter what kind.
I once asked her – without referencing the fact that she was the antithesis of poor – why ?
“I like muffins.”
How did I not see that coming ?
I will cop to filling the bag my burger came in with condiments at The Hat (pre-Covid). They had a whole slew of bins (see photo) filled with ketchup, 3 kinds of mustard, several different salad dressings, 2 sorts of pickle relish, horseradish sauce! and other stuff I didn’t use on my burger but would put to use later on at home. Usually on the leftover fires.
I had a co-worker about ten years ago, who never bought disposable sliverware. She would take 3-5 each of forks, knives and spoons from the cafeteria every day when she was down there getting (free) coffee. Over the year she would have accumulated several hundred. They gave a huge party once a year, where all the purloined silverware was used. Thanks to our company’s CSR program the silverware was the expensive compostable type. Of course at the party they all ended up in the trash.
Their income was certainly north of $500k per year, and they lived in house that was bought for over a million and at that time was worth over $2M (probably over $3M now).
She did not think she was doing anything wrong. I bet if their cleaning lady nicked a Coke out of the fridge they’d fire her in a heartbeat. And naturally huge supporters of the men in blue.
They were nicked for some kind of PPP loan fraud. Unfortunately they didn’t get to see what kind of cutlery and catering they had in the federal pen.
I didn’t remember it at all. Googling says it was actually a Hawaiian sushi place, but the Californian California Beach is closed.
There’s a steak house that we’ve gone to since we were kids (and it has been in business since the 1920s). They have a really cute little ceramic trough (for want of a better word) for their sugar packets. One time I took it. I couldn’t resist. I didn’t take the sugar, but the little dish was too cute to leave behind. And it had the restaurant name on it.
Which Hat is that?
Back in the day, late 1970s, when these things were hard to get (outside of the reason for this thread! 
) we bought a 8 pack of Coke in 16 oz glass bottles, and it came with a free promotional fountain glass. I had it for years - I loved that glass.
And then it broke. About 1982 I was in the Ground Round (Whitefish Bay, WI) and they had the same fountain glasses. So my flexible college aged moral sense said it was OK to liberate the glass. I loved that glass.
Then the 90s came and you could buy them at antique stores. I now have a huge collection.
Don’t know if the ones I bought were themselves stolen, but other than that one I paid for all mine.