This is likely to be the least ethical dilemma you will ever be asked about. Nonetheless…
I spent last week in Myrtle Beach. At home, I subscribe to the NYTimes, for a pretty penny since the paper has no sub service here. I am especially interested in the Sunday and Tuesday editions. On the Sunday, I looked for it, but didn’t find it. On Tuesday, I went to a Starbucks since they (almost) always carry them. The Starbucks was inside a grocery store and as we were leaving the store, my son spotted a long row of newspaper boxes one of which, mirabile dictu, was the Times. The boxes took only quarters so my son went back into the store to get 12 quarters (it cost 10 of them). So I put the quarters in and opened the box and took out the paper. But then, under the pile of Tuesday papers I noticed a couple of Sunday papers. What to do? Go back and wait in line for another 20 quarters or just pick up the paper that was unlikely to be sold (it was not visible from outside the box, so nobody was going to buy it) and just waiting to be trashed. I took it.
Naaaah, see, the thing about those newspaper boxes is the money you put in pays to open the door. Once you’re in, you can take as many as you like! Because of this, I had my own paper route in college!
The carrier that loads the boxes is supposed to remove the older papers as well as stocking the new ones. If the leftovers were there, they’re free game.
The only one this might come back on is that carries - if what he takes out of the coin box doesn’t match with the number of papers gone, he might be called on to balance.
But that’s his problem, not yours - I’ve done that very thing, and I have yet to suffer persecution, nor do I anticipate the gates of hell.
You might have actually done someone a favor. If all the Tuesday papers got bought up but there are still (Sunday) papers in the box, someone looking for a Tuesday might have paid without noticing the old edition. By taking a Sunday paper that’s one less person wasting their $2.50. You’re a hero!
Just think of all the coupons in a Sunday paper. If you employed your newspaper pilfering scheme on a grander scale, you could feed your family for free.
Whether or not one gets caught as no bearing on the ethics of a matter, but it does define your integrity. He paid for one newspaper, he should take only one newspaper.
When I worked in retail, lo these many years ago, each Sunday morning the manager would send me to the office to get cash to go to the nearby paperbox and buy 2 papers. We would then pull out our ads and tape them to the store window. One day he suggested I only get enough cash for one paper, but take 2 - nobody would ever know. I told him he could either give me enough money for 2 or go get them himself. Then I reminded him of several ways I could rip off the store without anyone knowing. He OK’d the cash for 2 papers and never brought it up again.
