Would you report someone for stealing a loaf of bread?

[SneakyGremlins]

Just that really.

I didn't. But should I have?

Not in this day and age, if someone is desperate enough to steal a loaf of bread then no I would turn a blind eye to it tbh.
I may take a loaf of bread to the till and pay for it myself and then return it to the shelf but it's really scary how many people are struggling to eat these days.

"Google suggests these are references to Les Miserables. Not seen it "

As far as I'm concerned you've committed the greater crime! 😱

Go watch it, now!

Alcohol withdrawals can kill you.

Ive bought my friend (recovered now, thankfully) alcohol before despite doing everything I could to get her help to stop. I had never seen withdrawals up close and I was shocked.

I wouldn't and I think it's sad someone was so desperate.

Agreed Takfuji

Well said chipsandgin. It’s relevant for good reason. hardly surprising that people made the link from the thread title given the widespread popularity of the story in many forms.

No, OP I wouldn’t report. I’d offer to pay if that was an option.

Not unless my name was Javert.

No of course not

No. A bottle booze or perfume - resale value- I would, but not something as basic as bread.

No. I would never report someone for stealing food. People need to eat and we live in a country of benefit sanctions, giving disabled and terminally ill people zero points and then there's also the rape clause.

People need to eat. End of.

I reported two men to security for stealing food. However they were emptying joints of beef and sirloin steaks from the fridge into a hold-all.

@Takfujimoto couldn't agree more

No I wouldn't report them...to be honest, I wouldn't report anyone I saw shoplifting...I'm not an unpaid security guard and I'm a huge fan of minding my own business.

Report it to who? The Police? They won't do anything about a theft of such small value.

^^ id like to know who you’d report them to as well tbh. The police won’t care and the security guards are just people. All they can do is ban them from the store. So nothing is going to come out of the reporting anyway?

No. Who would do that for fun?

Massively beaten to the Jean Vajean references! I thought this was going to be a Les Mis discussion thread off the title alone !

No is the answer and as a PP said I would have paid for it. It is shameful in this day and age that someone was driven to that.

Poverty was supposedly much worse years ago and yet we never needed food banks before.

I could've done with food banks when Dd was little, but we didn't have them.
I just went without so I could feed her, it was truly shit.

So many of us thinking of poor Jean Valjean!
Maybe his "sisters child was close to death"

Unless you genuinely think Javert is the good guy in Les Mis and Valjean's sisters kid deserved to die, definitely not!

I remember my moral lessons from musical theatre!

I might report myself in the hope of getting sent to Australia.

I would report it. I wouldn’t agonise over it either.

Don't be sillly! The person in question could of had a hungry child at home..I'd steal food for my children if I was desperate

I'm amazed by people who say they'd report this. What kind of small minded, goody goody two shoes, busy body would do such a thing?

I'm amazed by people who say they'd report this. What kind of small minded, goody goody two shoes, busy body would do such a thing?
Perhaps not bread or other essential food, but everyone knows shoplifting in general pushes up prices for the rest of us, so I've no time for people who do it. I once brought a security guard's attention to a teenager who was clearly hard at work sneaking large numbers of soft drinks through a self checkout. There was quite a queue, the assistant on duty was busy with "unexpected item in bagging area" alerts so I had plenty of time to observe his behaviour.