# Have you ever been a thief? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 14, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490 "2021-10-14T14:55:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![yarblek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/71e660/32.png) [@yarblek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yarblek)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/41 "2021-10-19T06:11:57Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > > [@TRC4941](#): > > > > Have you ever taken something that wasn’t yours? Shoplifted a candy bar when you were a kid? > > Who hasn’t? I have never intentionally shoplifted IIRC. I have stolen candy from a family member and food from a communal kitchen though. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/42 "2021-10-19T06:56:55Z")
A post was merged into an existing topic: [RangerLoops troll posts](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangerloops-troll-posts/952741/24) ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/43 "2021-10-19T11:36:22Z")
I was almost a thief yesterday. I had to sign a receipt at the credit union drive-thru. I put the receipt back in the gizmo that goes thru the pneumatic tube, and fortunately, just before I hit _Send_, I noticed I had their pen in my hand. Whew! Saved from petty larceny!! ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/44 "2021-10-19T12:49:09Z")
I’ve filched paper for my printer at home as well as staples, scissors, paper clips and other office supplies. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/45 "2021-10-19T13:02:53Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > > [@TRC4941](#): > > > > Have you ever taken something that wasn’t yours? Shoplifted a candy bar when you were a kid? > > Who hasn’t? > [@DrDeth](#): > > Yeah, most kids do a little shoplifting. The OP should have excluded that. You guys could be right, or you could be indulging in the old “but everybody does it” excuse. Now I’m curious whether there’s any reliable data about what percent of kids actually do shoplift at one point. Personally, I never did, unless there’s something I’m not remembering. Anecdotal evidence from this thread suggests that kids who “do a little shoplifting” fall into different categories: those who don’t know any better; those who know it’s wrong, do it anyway, feel guilt and/or get caught and never do it again; and those who, for a time in their life, do it fairly regularly. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/46 "2021-10-19T13:17:05Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > You guys could be right, or you could be indulging in the old “but everybody does it” excuse. Now I’m curious whether there’s any reliable data about what percent of kids actually do shoplift at one point. Personally, I never did, unless there’s something I’m not remembering. I did once try to steal a Lego tree from my babysitter’s house. I was probably 4 or 5. I don’t remember much about the incident except I put it under my shirt. I think I was caught, but I’m not sure. I must have been old enough to know it was wrong, but I can’t remember what was going through my head. Either way, that is the only time I ever attempted to steal anything. A couple weeks ago I bought a bunch of things from Home Depot, including 6 small storage boxes which the cashier missed in the pile. I decided I needed 10 more of them, so the next day I went through the self-checkout with 10, but scanned them 16 times to make up for the ones I accidentally took the day before. It was easier than trying to explain the whole thing to the Service Desk. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/47 "2021-10-19T14:16:56Z")
> [@digs](#): > > My copy (yes, of course it’s stolen) has great advice like “Tape those annoying business reply cards to a brick, and Bigcorp, Inc. will have to pay the return postage on it.” Apparently [that doesn’t actually work](https://www.straightdope.com/21341734/can-i-mail-a-brick-back-to-a-junk-mail-firm-using-the-business-reply-envelope). ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/48 "2021-10-19T19:07:33Z")
Me. Unless you count sneaking into my mom’s candy stash when I was a kid. I remember when I was like 13 or so, I had a friend who went through a brief stage of shoplifting, and I refused to go to the mall with her, because I didn’t want to be there if/when she got caught and get in trouble as well. Naturally, she DID eventually get caught shortly after that. But no way I ever stole or shoplifted. It’s an asshole thing to do, and I knew if I got caught, I’d be in a whole shit load of trouble. I got in enough trouble growing up already. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/49 "2021-10-22T03:09:05Z")
I want my childhood shoplifting to count. It’s the closest thing I have to a colorful past, and I want to get credit for being a criminal mastermind, or at least a scofflaw. . > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I was almost a thief yesterday. I had to sign a receipt at the credit union drive-thru. I put the receipt back in the gizmo that goes thru the pneumatic tube, and fortunately, just before I hit _Send_ , I noticed I had their pen in my hand. Whew! Saved from petty larceny!! I was just fantasizing about pulling the carrier out of the pneumatic tube, and it’s got a pen… still connected through the tube by a (very long) chain. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/50 "2021-10-23T23:57:37Z")
> [@Meltdown](#): > > That night my wife was like, “why do you have so much toothpaste?” _I_ was never a thief 🙄 but I had two cousins who discovered that if you reached up in an ice vending machine – the kind that delivers a big block of ice – there was something you could trip an instant before the block came crashing down that would make it cough up _two_ blocks. They made the mistake of doing it in front of their mother as the family was leaving for a camping trip and she was deeply offended they would do that. She wanted them to put another 50-cents in the machine but they protested – “We don’t have enough room for _three_ blocks. It’ll just go to waste and get water everywhere.” – so she took down the address of the company and made them mail it when they got back home. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490/51 "2021-10-24T00:30:43Z")
Never intentionally that I can remember; not as a child or any other time. I lack the ability to feel thrilled when I do something that I know is wrong. I’ve always been a little prig. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-a-thief/952490.md?page=2)