It seems like such a small thing - until you realize that you aren’t the only one making this same rationalization. From the bar side, it gets costly. They build the cost into doing business, but IMO they should not have to.
It ain’t baby raping, but it is wrong no matter what you are telling yourself.
It’s only ok if you use the glass to get drunk and and beat your starving children.
Does that mean if I had a clothing sponsor my friends should come to my house and steal my clothes?.. However you want to look at the situation, it is still theft. The bar owns the mugs.
Why not just ask the bar owners/managers if you can just it take it home with you? Just let them know you’re a collector. I’m sure they’d be much happier giving them away then having them stolen. What do you do if you’re caught red handed?..
Then there’s absolutely no reason to steal them rather than asking for them.
Why not try asking for the next five glasses you would otherwise steal?
Alright, no more boosting pints from the bar. Any new glass that I like will either be asked for or paid for fair and square.
Unless I really want it and they won’t give it up. Kidding.
So is it really okay to ask the bartender if you can keep one of the glasses? Let’s assume you’re not a regular, and it’s not a particularly busy night. I’m okay with them saying no, I just had assumed they’d think I was crazy (and worse, rude and pushy) for asking.
If there’s a glass that I REALLY have to have (which ain’t often), I say to my server/bartender: “See this glass here? How much of a tip would I have to leave to make you forget it was here?” They usually laugh and tell me to just take it, or tell me $5 or something. Either way they make a bigger tip, and I don’t feel like I’ve done anything wrong.
At least the OP didn’t fill the pint with the house ketchup on his way out.
Seconding this. Especially if there’s a long train ride ahead (thus aggravating theft with violating Mayor Boris’ public transport drink ban).
However, my friends and I (a) only do this at pubs where we’re regulars and the bartenders have expressed that they don’t mind, which is most of them because (b) we usually wash the glasses and bring them back to the pub next week.
No sense in wasting good drink!
That’s the spirit!
I suggest keeping a photo of your collection as proof that you are not joshing, most bartenders are friendly enough to probably dig some old ones behind the counter for you too.
I’m going to steal that phrase. Oh, and I’d guess it’s about as bad as elbowing a female friend in the boob. 
I guess it’s kinda tacky, but I’ve got no room to judge–when I was poor and living in dorms, I would steal food from the dining hall and take empty toilet paper tubes to the student union to steal half a roll’s worth of toilet paper.
If you want to get 'em legitimately, Target has nifty logo glasses for $10 for 4. I’d buy a couple sets myself, but they look like you can’t put them in the dishwasher.
<nitpick> It was a Brentano’s </nitpick>
Unless he owns the place, the glass doesn’t belong to the bartender either.
I steal menus from restaurants. I can’t ask because I’m usually given a flimsy paper take-out menu or something. I asked for awhile, but then I just stopped.
Nothing beats the real deal.
Thirded, but only when we were drinking at a bar around the corner from the house, there was a gig just finished and the bouncers had all been lifted for having been found with a load of guns a week or two before.
My family’s restaurant has to pay half the cost for the pint glasses from the beer distributors.
While it’s not a mortal sin, and we throw away more cracked glasses than people probably take, it’s still technically stealing. But I see it as no more harmful than reading a magazine cover to cover while waiting on line then putting it back on the rack without buying it.
How often have you been called on this by wait-staff? If I was taking orders I’d expect a menu back from everybody at the table.
I suppose it’s probably easier during busier hours with a packed house. Do you plan your heists with this in mind? Or is it all simply impulse and a mad rush of kleptomania-pumped adrenaline?
As to the OP, I can only offer some anecdotal reassurance. I worked as a bouncer for a bit many years ago. The dive I worked at had 4 bartenders and 5 or 6 bouncers on weekend nights. All of us took home liquor, mixers, and glassware on a regular basis, to say nothing of what we consumed while on the job. It was considered a “perk” by all of us (though no one ever talked about what was going home…), especially the bouncers, since we got paid minimum wage and had to handle a lot of crap.
I guess the lesson is, the crappier the bar, the more likely the staff is liberating far more than you’ll ever take. So only steal from real dumps. 
My grandfather used to steal stuff from restaurants, even though he could certainly afford to buy his own tableware. He used to tell me which restaurant he took this sugar container, that set of salt and pepper shakers, and those three plates from when I was a kid. When I was a teenager, living with my grandparents, he was livid to find out (from reading my diary) that I had shoplifted a deck of playing cards.
I’ve had to return about three menus.
There is a method to my madness. After everyone at the table orders, I look at the waiter as s/he reaches to grab mine and say politely, “Would you mind if I held on to the menu? I might get something to go.”
At this point, the waiters nod agreeably then go on their way. I usually just sit on the menu for the duration of the meal, then skedaddle out of there at the meal’s end.
What if the waiter comes back and asks about that to-go order? This happens perhaps one out of ten times. Once the menu is out of sight, servers are quick to forget about the order. I’ve done this while the server was busy and there were five people at my table, and I’ve snagged a menu when me and just one other person were the server’s only table. If they do ask about the to-go order, I just tell them that I changed my mind and gave the menu to a passing waiter or buss person.
I have to admit to a one-time only pint glass theft. Heartland Brewery, Union Square, NYC, circa 2003. It was around this time of year and the glass has a picture of a Mastiff with reindeer antlers. The picture looked exactly like my dog, Riley. I don’t condone thievery, and I should have asked to buy the glass, but I didn’t. Still have it, though. Riley died last year and I can’t bear to part with the glass.