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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Would you still from a rich person ?

100 replies

Spice22 · 06/04/2017 15:00

Just been watching one of those social experiments on Facebook and the comments were amazing. Thought I'd start a discussion about it.

The video basically shows a girl sitting at the bus stop with someone else, she then leaves a Louis Vuitton purse on the bench 'accidentally' and gets into a Ferrari when her boyfriend/husband arrives to pick her up. Most of the people steal the purse/money and deny seeing it when the owner returns looking for it.
Most people commented (under the video) with the general consensus that it was acceptable as the girl obviously had a lot of money and the people waiting for a bus don't.

Personally, I think that's a disgusting attitude. Just because someone has a lot of money doesn't entitle you to any of it.

What do you guys think?

OP posts:

pocketsaviour · 06/04/2017 17:42

It's hardly surprising a lot of people have this attitude when we have a rich folk history of characters like Robin Hood who were celebrated for the whole "Steal from the rich, give to the poor" thing.

BarbarianMum · 06/04/2017 18:13

Maybe we have a rich folk history of characters like Robin Hood because of the inherent unfairness of the feudal system?

BarbarianMum · 06/04/2017 18:16

Actually I think its the opposite. In the very, very poor communities I've lived in there has been a huge culture of mutual support - partly because everyone knows everyone and partly because you life can (and often does) depend on it. And crime was simply not tolerated - being stolen from was the difference between eating and not, so there was very rough justice for any thieves caught.

OhTheRoses · 06/04/2017 18:19

No. But what would you do if you found a £20 note in the street? I would keep it; my DH handed it into the police station.

TisMeTheLadFromTheBar · 06/04/2017 18:19

No I wouldn't steal. I'd probably cause a commotion calling out, trying to give it back to her.

FataliePorkman · 06/04/2017 18:21

Never could.

I'd pick it up to look to see if there was an address or phone number in there but after that I would take it to the nearest police station.

At work last year somebody dropped their phone- luckily they had set up their Medical I'D details on it so was able to call her partner to say we had picked her phone up. He was amazed that it hadn't gone missing. Shows how sad this world is becoming

Eolian · 06/04/2017 18:24

No. Your willingness to steal is about you and your lack of morals, not about the wealth of the person you steal from. And a rich person is no more deserving of being robbed than a poor person.

MimsyFluff · 06/04/2017 18:44

I think these videos are highly edited. With normally only one or two people been honest.

I would steal if we were starving or needed to heat the house in the middle of winter but we are a 1st world country apparently so I wouldn't need to.

Original poster

Spice22 · 06/04/2017 20:18

Sorry, I wrote and then went out !

Interesting to read everyone's thoughts. I've seen a couple steal from pound land before - they were stealing food and i was quite torn. I judged them for stealing but then figured it must be really bad if they have to steal from poundland, AND they had a baby with them.

I guess I'm like most, I wouldn't judge much if someone was stealing food because otherwise they wouldn't eat. BUT what if the shop then shuts because too many people are stealing and now a number of people are also struggling like you.

OP posts:

lalalalyra · 06/04/2017 20:46

^^ This. Like lala I used to steal food as a child, my parents were very abusive and I would have starved without stealing. It doesn't make it right, but I don't regret it and I'd do the same again given the time over. Sometimes people are forced into situations not of their own making which cause them to do things they wouldn't normally consider.

It's something I find very odd. I'm very ashamed of the fact we stole. Not so much when we stole from the big shop, but we often stole from the small corner shop and now that I'm an adult I realise they weren't rich by any means. I worried a lot (pre-counselling) about the purse we found. I had nightmares that we'd stolen a Mum's purse and her children had went hungry instead. It still bothers me sometimes.

That said, I know I'd steal food for my children if I had too. I'd do pretty much anything before allowing them to know what being truly, truly hungry (or cold) feels like.

FerdinandsRevenge · 06/04/2017 20:49

I reported a woman to the manager at an ASDA because she gave her toddler one of those purees, knowing she wouldn't pay for it. I think she was taken to their back office. It didn't matter that she had a small child and I'm glad I alerted her to the store owner. Hope she got what she deserved.

If that actually happened (big if) the twat who brought her back to the office will probably lose his job as you're not allowed to accuse someone of theft until they've left without paying. You know actually stolen.

Otherwise just walking around with it in your bags the shop is 'theft'.

I regularly do the same with my kids and it means I get a quiet shop and I've never had so much as a look.

FerdinandsRevenge · 06/04/2017 20:51

lala I'm assuming you wouldn't consider a 6 year old you met today stealing bread and milk a thief?
So you weren't one. We live in a society where the rich make the rules and force the poor to die by them.

Angelicinnocent · 06/04/2017 20:52

My very young DD once dropped the£10 note she insisted on carrying herself to buy her dad a father's day gift. Was amazed to find it had been handed in to customer services. There are still honest people about.

Original poster

Spice22 · 06/04/2017 21:13

Ferdina We live in a society where the rich make the rules and force the poor to die by them. I don't think I quite agree. Imo stealing protects the poor most - if someone is poor they cannot easily replace something which has been stolen. Someone who is rich would be able to replace it.

OP posts:

Railgunner1 · 06/04/2017 21:47

I wouldn't steal from a person. A shop - maybe. But i don't as i'm too afraid to get caught.

chitofftheshovel · 06/04/2017 22:16

I've had lots of times when things have been returned to me, wallets with £100 in them (a lot for me) phones, the dog...but then I do my utmost to return the things I find. I'm a strong believer in karma so will always do to others what I expect others to do to me.

WaitroseCoffeeCostaCup · 06/04/2017 22:21

No, I wouldn't steal from anyone rich or poor.

WhooooAmI24601 · 06/04/2017 22:31

I don't believe in karma much but wouldn't steal regardless. I found a swanky watch once near a bus stop. Handed it in to the nearest police station, months later they phoned to say nobody had claimed it. I sold it and used it to sponsor my friend who was running two marathons that year for a charity. It wouldn't sit right to use the money on myself.

Also, our neighbour once dropped a huge amount of cash on her drive. I hadn't noticed and as DS1 got into the car he showed me a fistful of twenty and fifty pound notes. I looked about and they were blowing all over our drive. We collected them up and went next door as that was the only place it could have come from. She cried when she realised she'd lost (and found it). She's richer than God but we gave her back every note. DS1 still remembers that day and I maintain that it helped teach him the right thing to do.

StrangeLookingParasite · 06/04/2017 22:45

And if she went to the checkout with the empty packet only to find she didn't have the money to pay for it?. It's still stealing when you're consuming a product you haven't paid for.

Wowee, there's being honest then there's being a sanctimonious twat.

No, I'd return it. I found a few hundred sitting in the slot of a cash machine once; handed it to the bank. That area has many very elderly people who, like my mother did, took out a chunk to last for a while. I just imagined it was a whole lot of someone's pension.

Of course later that day the 1200 vet bill came in, so that was ironic.

motherofdaemons · 06/04/2017 22:47

No. I remember my friends and I found a bag with lots of money in it when we were younger. They wanted to spend it at the pub but I took it to the police station like a spoilsport. Turns out it belonged to some little old lady who was delighted to know there were still honest people in the world. I'd feel really guilty if I kept it. I'd keep a tenner or something if I found it in the street, but not a large amount and definitely not a bag or a wallet.

Corporately · 07/04/2017 00:07

I wouldn't steal, no. But I think it's not so easy to be moralistic if you're in a state of desperate need, particularly in countries where society is very unequal/corrupt and there is no welfare state - I don't think it's anything other to be expected that the crime rate is so high in for eg places like South Africa.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 07/04/2017 09:30

i think morals are a luxury that we would drop like a stone if it came right to it.

Yep. Agreed.

if you read history like in great depression of 1930's before the welfare state there was theft but generally most didn't even when there was unemployment etc

That was generally down to the fact that you'd get hanged, even as a child, for stealing so much as a loaf of bread though more than morals.

FeralBeryl · 07/04/2017 09:47

Have handed in bags, purse, wallets, phones.
Have found 'mum' on phones and rung the number to tell them I've got their child's phone and they don't need to cancel it and returned it - that's happened 3 times but key lock has changed my superhero capacity

I would NEVER report someone for feeding a child. In Living's tale, it sounds like it's been a pacifier so the mum could finish her shopping, but what if, just what if that child hadn't been fed and they couldn't afford to feed them?
What if she was shopping for someone she looked after and it wasn't her shopping?

Fwiw Ella's pouches was the only reason I got any shopping for about 3 years - always paid.
And yes - I've walked out of a shop with an item of clothing on my pram handle - it happens. Went back, paid, job done.

Disclaimer* in a zombie apocalypse, I would steal food and eat all of your eyeballs.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 07/04/2017 10:32

I found £20 on the shop floor before Christmas when shopping. I could have done with it. But I handed it in. Literally everyone said I was daft to do so as if I'd have dropped it did I really expect someone would hand mine in?
I think it just depends what sort of person you are.

I have a very posh looking purse. I once lost in a shop and was eternally grateful for the person who handed it in. It was a birthday present off my Gran a few years back and has sentimental value. Not much value ever inside though!

MrsTrentReznor · 07/04/2017 10:58

Absolutely not.
You know nothing about others and thier circumstances.
I wouldn't steal from anyone.

I had my phone stolen once. It was a crappy old phone, but it had the last text messages from my dead DP on it. This was before smart phones so backup wasn't a thing.
It floored me. I was absolutely devastated and if I ever got my hands on the bitch that stole it I'd make her regret it.
(It was a small group of people who did a distraction theft at my workplace. I saw her and looked her in the eye as she left with my memories that's how I know what she looked like)

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