# People stealing my lunch, is it ok to make a cat food sandwich? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169 "2009-09-07T16:15:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Captain\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Captain\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/161 "2009-09-08T21:49:44Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > No one’s ever stolen my lunch, but in 7th grade bio class someone stole my dead frog. [good old fashioned racism]Your didn’t have a Frenchman in your class did you?[/good old fashioned racism] ---
**Author:** ![Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9adbd/32.png) [@Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fell_through_the_Ice)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/162 "2009-09-08T21:52:52Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Preferable, I’d guess, to returning it to the fridge with a bite missing. It would have been way too risky to try to sneak the food back into the fridge, especially if it had been noticed missing in the interim and was magically back after someone saw **Fell** go into the lunchroom. Re: mayo-based fillings, I must have felt they were risky. Maybe I’d heard some thing about mayo and food poisoning and was worried if was something that was left out it would make me sick. Plain meat on plain bread seemed safe. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/163 "2009-09-08T21:53:43Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > My brother has run several. The kids do not go hungry. If he told the counselors that he had no money, he would be given advice on how to budget so as not to starve, or given food to take to work. > > Why are you so fired up to attribute motivations to me when you in fact know piss-all about it? > > I want him to explain why a starving individual throws away perfectly good food. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass whether he apologizes or not. His apologies in this thread are meaningless unless he stole a lunch from someone here. > > As I said, to me the story doesn’t pass the sniff test. Why can’t you understand that? it’s a pretty simple concept. In high school, I once borrowed a pencil and forgot to return it. Please don’t get mad at me! ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/164 "2009-09-08T21:53:59Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > I want him to explain why a starving individual throws away perfectly good food. Hungry != starving, as has been noted many times in this thead. I got home from work last night and I was hungry. I wanted nothing that we had in the house, so I went to bed, and had breakfast when I woke up. Using your position, I was being a fool or I’m lying, because I was “starving” (the colloquialism) and turned down perfectly good ramn, sammich makings, and canned fruit. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/165 "2009-09-08T21:57:47Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > And then there was my neighbour who routinely complained that someone was stealing steaks from his refridgerator in the middle ofthe night. > > I thought he was a bit of a nut, until one night my cat laid a steak on my chest while I was sleeping. > > Yes, I apologized and paid him for the purrrloined stakes. This is hilarious, and reminds me of a story my grandmother used to tell. Entire frozen chickens kept disappearing from the freezer. Grandmother could think of no one to suspect except the maid, but didn’t like to say anything without proof. Still, maid came \>this\< close to being fired. Until one day my grandmother is walking into the kitchen and spots the family dog (a quite-brainy Dalmatian–there’s lots of stories about his antics) walking up to the freezer. She hides and watches as the dog uses his mouth to open the freezer (something none of them had any idea he could do), pull out the chicken, _close the freezer door behind him_, and trot off into the living room, where he proceeded to bury the chicken in an indoor flower-bed type thingy they had. Grandmother later dug up about 10 chickens in various states of decay. He wasn’t eating them…just stealing and hiding. The maid, fortunately, never knew how close the dog came to getting her fired. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/166 "2009-09-08T22:05:45Z")
Sorry, nothing further to update. I don’t know who took the sandwich but it is gone and has not been found. ---
**Author:** ![Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9adbd/32.png) [@Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fell_through_the_Ice)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/167 "2009-09-08T22:16:40Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Sorry, nothing further to update. I don’t know who took the sandwich but it is gone and has not been found. So are they stealing just the sandwich, or a whole lunchbag with the sandwich in it among other things? As I mentioned earlier, this plan may not work if the thief is stealing the whole lunchbag, then sneaking off somewhere to peruse its contents. They will just keep throwing out your weird-looking, suspect sandwich and eating the other items. If they never sample the sandwich, they’ll never “learn their lesson”. A way to test this theory would be to put just the sandwich on the fridge shelf, wrapped in clear wrap with the nature of the filling obvious by bits of it sqeezed out of the bun and pushing against the plastic. If they still take it, then you will know they are at least willing to risk “mystery fillings”, but if they shun it, you are on to something. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/168 "2009-09-08T22:18:42Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Are you sure it didn’t suddenly come to life and jump off, singing, a la Michigan J. Frog? Nope. Turned out another kid had taken it (I’m going to be charitable and assume it was an accident). How do I know? Because when my frog went missing, the teacher randomly assigned me to work with the culprit. He said it was his, but I had carved my name in the dissection tray, so I got my froggy back. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/169 "2009-09-08T22:31:06Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > I want him to explain why a starving individual throws away perfectly good food. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass whether he apologizes or not. His apologies in this thread are meaningless unless he stole a lunch from someone here. > > As I said, to me the story doesn’t pass the sniff test. Why can’t you understand that? it’s a pretty simple concept. Does your brother ever have a problem with petty theft among the children? I wouldn’t be at all surprised, considering that I’ve always heard that children who have been deprived are inclined to steal just for the sake of it. I’m not saying that it makes it morally right, and I wouldn’t be surprised if deep down hunger had little to do with it, but the story sounds very normal to me. I also realize that my classmates are far too privileged. 😛 We’re grad students without much income, and our main problem with the office fridge is stuff left in it to go bad. We would be happy if someone would eat all the food in it regularly! ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/170 "2009-09-08T22:39:59Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Sorry, nothing further to update. I don’t know who took the sandwich but it is gone and has not been found. That’s soooo anticlimactic. Ah well, we will get the culprit tomorrow, right?! > [@Sonnenstrahl](#): > > Does your brother ever have a problem with petty theft among the children? I wouldn’t be at all surprised, considering that I’ve always heard that children who have been deprived are inclined to steal just for the sake of it. I’m not saying that it makes it morally right, and I wouldn’t be surprised if deep down hunger had little to do with it, but the story sounds very normal to me. Somebody posted upthread about leaving a note that you licked everything in the lunch bag. Where was it I saw that about former prisoners, on TV? They sit down with meal and lick the dessert so nobody will steal it, then proceed with the rest and leave the dessert till the end. Maybe stealing food is a “food insecurity” byproduct…technically not starving but not always certain where the next meal is coming from or how much there will be, some may figure stealing and eating extra on the side to be like an insurance policy. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/171 "2009-09-08T22:40:11Z")
> [@Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](#): > > So are they stealing just the sandwich, or a whole lunchbag with the sandwich in it among other things? > > As I mentioned earlier, this plan may not work if the thief is stealing the whole lunchbag, then sneaking off somewhere to peruse its contents. They will just keep throwing out your weird-looking, suspect sandwich and eating the other items. If they never sample the sandwich, they’ll never “learn their lesson”. A way to test this theory would be to put just the sandwich on the fridge shelf, wrapped in clear wrap with the nature of the filling obvious by bits of it sqeezed out of the bun and pushing against the plastic. If they still take it, then you will know they are at least willing to risk “mystery fillings”, but if they shun it, you are on to something. The bag contained nothing but a sandwich almost every time, sometimes a sandwich and a protein bar. ---
**Author:** ![Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9adbd/32.png) [@Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fell_through_the_Ice)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/172 "2009-09-08T22:40:36Z")
> [@Sonnenstrahl](#): > > children who have been deprived are inclined to steal just for the sake of it. I’m not saying that it makes it morally right, and I wouldn’t be surprised if deep down hunger had little to do with it, but the story sounds very normal to me. True, lots of the other kids shoplifted and stuff. I never shoplifted or stole from stores or anything. Re: my lunch stealing, I was just a typically always-hungry, gangly teenager with (for whatever reason) no lunch of his own. It was still stealing, of course, but it wasn’t “acting-out” or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9adbd/32.png) [@Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fell_through_the_Ice)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/173 "2009-09-08T22:44:51Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > The bag contained nothing but a sandwich almost every time, sometimes a sandwich and a protein bar. So the thief might just be grabbing the bag without even looking in it? Really, try the saran-wrapped sandwich with the filling contents visible, and just leave the unbagged item on the shelf. I’d be very curious if it gets nabbed. Of course, after today…hmm. I’m betting tomorrow’s sandwich will be unmolested. I must admit I am also chuckling and on the edge of my seat wondering if you will find out who did it! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jerseyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Jerseyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerseyman)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/174 "2009-09-08T22:47:33Z")
I suggest cultivating exotic tastes - preferably ones with a Mexican, African or Indian heritage. Plenty of [Piccalilli](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccalilli) tastes as vile as it looks and [Branston Pickle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branston_(food)) comes a close second. Try a traditional English pub _Ploughman’s Lunch_ of ‘cheddar’ cheese that never heard of Cheddar, soggy white bread and plenty of Branston. All that stuff is English attempts to reproduce Indian sauces. Mostly unsuccessful. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/175 "2009-09-08T23:04:12Z")
Keep on with the cat food sandwiches and see how long they continue to take them, I say. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/176 "2009-09-08T23:42:43Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > And then there was my neighbour who routinely complained that someone was stealing steaks from his refridgerator in the middle ofthe night. > > I thought he was a bit of a nut, until one night my cat laid a steak on my chest while I was sleeping. > > Yes, I apologized and paid him for the purrrloined stakes. Is your cat’s name Garfield by any chance? My dogs are pretty smart, but have never gotten into the fridge - handle is too high, I think. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/177 "2009-09-08T23:47:33Z")
> [@simster](#): > > Of course, now DigitalC finds out that it was the insanely hot guy/gal that he/she was hoping to talk to that had been stealing his lunch - with the hopes that he/she would get caught, because, while they are insanely hot, they are also incredibly shy, and needed someway to get a conversation started with him/her. > > They had been stealing the lunch as a way to get closer - having thier meals fixed by the object of thier distant desires. > > They are also deathly alergic to cat food. Or maybe not - you decide which of these two would be worse - you may have just sealed thier love for you, and you think what they like is gross. > > That’s what they call irony. Or, today, the thief stole the Managers lunch, rather than the OP’s. The Manager, not knowing about the problem, is just settling down to a nice lunch, having taken the Op’s trapped lunch by mistake. The Op will now find his ass fired (with cause) and possible criminal charges. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/178 "2009-09-09T00:10:51Z")
> [@Jerseyman](#): > > Plenty of [Piccalilli](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccalilli) tastes as vile as it looks Good gad. I was expecting the later mentioned American Piccalilli, a relish from sweet pickles or tomatoes. I will never forget this, Jerseyman. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/179 "2009-09-09T00:26:44Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > In high school, I once borrowed a pencil and forgot to return it. Please don’t get mad at me! Why should I? We’re not talking about remotely the same thing. [QUOTE=Tristan] Hungry != starving, as has been noted many times in this thead. I got home from work last night and I was hungry. I wanted nothing that we had in the house, so I went to bed, and had breakfast when I woke up. Using your position, I was being a fool or I’m lying, because I was “starving” (the colloquialism) and turned down perfectly good ramn, sammich makings, and canned fruit. [/QUOTE] Oh please. He was so hungry he was forced to steal someone else’s food, virtually from out of their mouth. He was so hungry his mental capacity was compromised. And yet not hungry enough to eat food he didn’t like? Bullshit. Double bullshit, actually. People who are so hungry they can’t think straight will eat anything edible. As for your example, give me a break. When you get home from work so hungry that stealing food seems like a good idea, get back to me. Otherwise, don’t bother me with your useless comparisons. “Hungry” and “hungry enough to steal and risk losing my job” are two entirely different things. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/180 "2009-09-09T00:51:31Z")
I’m still wondering how a cat can steal a steak out of a refrigerator. My cat can hardly be bothered to amble over to his bowl of kibble, and though he’s poked his head into the open fridge, there were no tempting raw steaks sitting there that struck his fancy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169.md?page=10)