Theft or reasonable?

[Roseformeplease]

Just come out of a huge supermarket where we stopped for breakfast en route back from holiday. DH and MiL ordered huge breakfasts and the rest if us had cake / biscuit type meals. They gathered dozens of little salt and peppers at the end of the meal (20-30) and DH helped her to scoop the lot into her handbag.

I said I was very, very embarrassed and walked away as this is theft. They reasoned that the packets would have been binned.

I argued that I always try and return the unused ones to the cafe.

My children (teens) agree with me. DH and MiL say it is not theft.

Jury?

NB after a week with her I might just have had enough so be unreasonable as she hums all the time and smells if cheap hairspray.

I confess I used to, "accidentally" year off several disposable bibs in ikea.

They lived in the changing bag for those days you forgot to put back the washable ones.

waste.

revolting.

I know somebody that stocks her house with the sugar packets from supermarkets. She doesn't have sugar in tea/coffee so refuses to buy a bag of sugar to keep in the house for guests, so she fills her bag with little packets from the café and takes them home

She is in no way strapped for cash, just incredibly tight

Taking more than you need just because it's there is shitty behaviour.

Theft!

I don't suppose there'll be police involvement but whenever I see people doing this sort of thing I think they're peasants.

Theft? Calm down miss goody goody. I wily think bad manners but not extreme as theft.

Not a case of being goody goody. As a matter of fact and law, this is is undoubtedly theft.

My MIL does this. Lost her in a service station once only for her to come back with about 50 or so packets of sauce and salt and pepper, and two starbucks mugs. She will also steal plates and cutlery from nandos and the sauces. If we go somewhere and we've got a newish bottle of sauce on the table, she'll have that. If we go to a buffet, she'll bring a box to put food in to take home. FI and his sister despair of it, if it's not nailed down, she'll have it!

I don't think a few salt and peppers is stealing, but my MIL certainty takes it too far.

Myself, I couldn't do what she does, but I do take the shampoos and toiletries from hotel rooms, the mini's just because it reminds me of being a kid in nice hotels and when I use them after, I remember the hotel and it's nice.

I had a friend at uni whose halls of residence was right over Macdonalds. She didn't buy milk for a year - stole the little pots for her cereal and coffee... So embarrassing.

Sorry, how could taking hotel toiletries be theft? They are there for the customer. If the police involvement comment was not a joke, please seek urgent help, you are crackers

Taking the toiletries out of the bathroom in a hotel is OK. Helping yourself to a load of toiletries from the housekeeping trolley isn't though. There's a difference.

Petty theft to be sure. They didn't need but a few. Sure they would be binned but they wouldn't have if they wouldn't have taken them in the first place.

I am just driving home from a night in a four seasons and, as with any decent hotel, if you ask housekeeping, they will bring as much as you want. I have stocked up on loccitane shampoo and conditioner and will not buy any till I go next month. It's not theft and they really couldn't give a shit

Some hotels put full-sized toiletries in the bathroom and charge you if you take them.

I am just driving home from a night in a four seasons and, as with any decent hotel, if you ask housekeeping, they will bring as much as you want. I have stocked up on loccitane shampoo and conditioner and will not buy any till I go next month. It's not theft and they really couldn't give a shit

I don't think a hotel that does that would be the kind of place I would find myself and if by accident I did, I am sure I would not be staying there for long. That is pathetic and skanky

I'd feel sorry for her tbh. Who can't afford salt and pepper?

"For goodness sake they are right"

So you think it is OK and morally right to take all the salt and pepper sachets from the table. Isn't it a little cheapskate and ethically questionable to do that?

Why is it not theft to some people? Because it's a low value item? At what value does something become stolen? Anything under £5 is fair game? £1? 50p?

Maybe most people just don't really care. This thread is a classic.

If your DH and MIL helped themselves to excessive amounts of sachets, rather than them having been handed out by staff, and then took them home if course that's stealing.

I think they sound cool.

Well, the four seasons isn't cheap. if they stopped giving out so many samples then maybe they could charge less. Sounds to me as though you've paid for them anyway, they could be giving out 1L tubs and would still make a huge profit from you.

I don't care, it isn't much more than any other decent hotel where I live. Not everything comes down to money. I like capitalism so don't feel hard done to. I kept a flannel as well this time. It was wrapped around my brushes. I haven't seen any blue flashing lights in the rear view mirror yet but expecting it any minute, obviously

Hot dogs in a flask sound an amazing idea.

Perhaps a few is ok, but not handfuls.