most of us would steal a million from a big multinational if we knew we'd get away with it

Stealing 1m from Jeff Bezos would be like stealing less than £1 from me. Genuinely, I just did the maths.

I would not. Even if I was desperate I wouldn't. It would not be worth the excruciating anxiety it would cause me.

This is a great question! Even reading it makes me feel guilty as I hadn't thought about the actual act of stealing. I would happily take a million pounds from a billionaire. And I wouldn't feel guilty. But the actual act of thieving makes me uncomfortable.

For me I couldn't steal anything of sentimental value like jewellery. That breaks my thieves charter 😁 but yes I think I would take a cash card to steal cash. Knowing that they have so much money they would likely not even notice.

No, because I was brought up not to take what isn't mine. It's called stealing. There are consequences even if you aren't caught.

I wouldn't do those things, by the way! Just wondering how far the OP would go.

So would you steal on a personal level, eg if you were working for someone incredibly wealthy and saw they'd left something incredibly expensive behind and would never suspect you of having it, eg a very expensive ring or watch that couldn't be tracked back to you?

If you would do that, would you use their cash card to take out cash if you knew they would never find out?

How personal would you get?

No I wouldn’t.

I totally would

No.

People will still get hurt.

You'd be able to afford enough therapy to easily get over it lol 😁

If I was guaranteed to get away with it then I'd probably take more tbh

As long as I definitely wouldn't get caught and there would be zero consequences to the theft then I wouldn't think twice about it, not just from big corporations but also from billionaires.

In reality though I can't think of a situation where I could possibly be 100 percent confident enough to be sure I would get away with it and if I wasn't 100 percent confident then it wouldn't be worth the life long anxiety I'd have to live with over it. So I wouldn't do it.

Except you then have to prove where the money came from.

I would too. Morality is a luxury for the rich. None of these hugely rich people have actually earned their personal wealth. It's almost all luck. I would steal it in a heartbeat (whilst never leaving anyone without the financial means to feed and house themselves)

Oh, OP, is this you trying to get us all fighting about the haves and the have nots? Do you want us to say that multimillionaires deserve what they get? That they haven't earned their money? That they should share their wealth?

I think "most of us" are not thieves.

I probably would yes.

Speak for yourself, I wouldn't.

My dad once found himself in a position where he could have stolen multiple millions from his company. Apparently he and my mum stayed up late into the night planning how they'd get away with it. But in the end they decided that they didn't want to live on the run for the rest of their lives. So my dad went to work the next day and reported the security issue...

Naw I wouldn't but wouldn't judge you much. My older brother worked for years for one in Inverclyde in the 90s and it went bust and the whole place was devasted . Never really recovered from that and other examples of deindustrialisation/silicon valley buggering off elsewhere. Not good.

Yep, definitely, if I 💯 knew I’d get away with it.
not from an individual though, unless they were a multi billionaire.
id buy a nice house with it, give some to charity, some to my kids.

I wouldn't.

Firstly, because it's wrong.

Secondly, because someone, somewhere would suffer. Likely the head of accounts, or the auditors, or the chief warehouse operator or ....

It wouldn't go uninvestigated. Someone would be made accountable. Many people would be working extra hours and having sleepless nights while trying to balance the books and find the discrepancy.

Thirdly because it's immoral to take something that isn't yours without the permission of the whoever it belongs to.

Would you be okay with people stealing a fair chunk of money from you? If you would be outraged at someone stealing from you (which I assume you would be), why do you feel fine with stealing from others?!

You are likely more wealthy than a good chunk of the world population, even if you were to be generally broke per UK standards. Is it okay to steal from anyone wealthier, just because you feel/think/assume they won’t notice/miss it?

That’s the same logic African con men use in their dating scams, where they don’t even feel bad about stealing from often broke & lonely western folks just aiming to find love, because they see them as much richer than them and themselves as more needing/worthy of the money and most of the time nothing happens to them.

So no I wouldn’t do it. I know someone who has (several millions in fact) and got arrested and is currently in jail. Just as he should. He seemed like such a decent non-money oriented man and I am completely floored he did that. And while I am devastated for his kids, I am GLAD he was caught. Wouldn’t want to live in a world where people can get away from stealing millions from others for no reason at all other than jealousy? /feeling entitled to other people’s money?

il admit it, yes OP I would! Currently thinking what I would then do with money!

Nobody on mumsnet will admit to this!

No I’m not a thief