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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

That this does not constitute stealing?

349 replies

6079SmithW · 19/08/2021 16:03

We recently enjoyed a self catering holiday. On the way we decided to break up the journey by stopping for breakfast at a well known chain pub/restaurant/hotel.
The menu was very complicated with only certain things being available to hotel guests rather than others.
My partner and I ordered a cooked breakfast, the DC just wanted something simple so I ordered them a bacon sandwich. I enquired about the small boxes of cereal on display as that was what the DC really wanted. I was told it was part of the hotel guests only breakfast and if DC wanted it it would br £6 each (£12). I ordered that too. My bill was over £30!
The hotel guests additional breakfast was basically the small boxes of cereals plus bread/crumpets to toast. The DC ate a box of cereal and one crumpet each.
Feeling aggrieved that I had spent over £30 on breakfast, and mindful that we were going on a self catering break, I decided to get my monies worth by taking with us a few additional individual portions of jam and Nutella (about 10-12) total. My partner accused me of stealing! WIBU?

OP posts:
TractorAndHeadphones · 19/08/2021 18:10

@MummyInTheNecropolis

OP won’t be back now, she’ll have assumed a new identity and gone on the run. I hope when they find her they lock her up and throw away the key Grin
The thread will be delete for being ‘outing’. I beg £10 it’ll be gone by midnight
AnAnonymousCheerleader · 19/08/2021 18:12

@MummyInTheNecropolis

OP won’t be back now, she’ll have assumed a new identity and gone on the run. I hope when they find her they lock her up and throw away the key Grin
At least she'll have some nice Nutella to go with the prison bread and water though. Grin
SheldonesqueTheBstard · 19/08/2021 18:13

Either that or she’ll be off her tits on the stolen sugar and gone rogue when she goes to the shop to stock up for her break.

Likely to be found licking out yoghurt pots in the aisles of a supermarket near you in protest of being charged £1.15 for a carton of milk.

chesirecat99 · 19/08/2021 18:14

So the OP took 12 individual sachets that cost about 15p each, £1.80 in total, that she would have been entitled to leave with if they were inside her DC's stomachs as she had paid £12 for them to have unlimited cereal and crumpets and toast with jam/Nutella? I'm fairly sure that the hotel expects and budgets for each guest to eat more than the one crumpet and box of cereal that the DC had. The hotel hasn't really suffered any loss because of it. Would it be stealing if they ate more than £6 worth of cereal and crumpets from the buffet in one sitting? Or if they took more than they could eat and left it on the table so it had to be thrown away?

I'm not sure it is any more morally wrong than charging £6 for a serving of cereal and bread. Certainly no one has ever been convicted of taking a few extra jams from a breakfast buffet...

Iamthewombat · 19/08/2021 18:17

So the measure of whether something is wrong is whether anybody has been ‘convicted’ for it? Interesting!

80sMum · 19/08/2021 18:17

I suppose that technically it was stealing - but charging £6 for a single-portion box of cereal is daylight robbery imo!

mam0918 · 19/08/2021 18:18

Im confused, was the £6 for access to the full continental breckfast? That seems standard price for a breakfast buffet, some places offer a kids eat free but they dont have too... £6 is hardly crazy money for the spread they offer (pastries, crumpets, toast, muffins, fruit, cerials, yougert, juices, coffee etc...).

I have never 'taken things away' from a breakfast buffet (or any buffet) for later, In fact I think pretty much any buffet resteraunt would kick you out if you took in tupperwear to take extra meals home with you.

I agree with PP that 12 is not in any way a childs personal use in the meal you paid for, 12 is a full weeks supply of that breakfast item... you didnt pay £6 to get the rights to help yourself to a weeks shopping you paid to get just enough for that meal.

Iamthewombat · 19/08/2021 18:21

The hotel hasn't really suffered any loss because of it

You should try that next time you go to a buffet, where you pay per head, and load up a trolley with all the food it will hold. Take the whole family. When the staff challenge you, tell them that their employer “hasn’t really suffered any loss” because you’ve each paid £13.95 or whatever and the cost of the food to them is probably about that. See how you get on. Be sure to report back!

Iamthewombat · 19/08/2021 18:22

@80sMum

I suppose that technically it was stealing - but charging £6 for a single-portion box of cereal is daylight robbery imo!
This is approximately the twelfth time that somebody has made exactly the same observation.
mam0918 · 19/08/2021 18:24

@chesirecat99

So the OP took 12 individual sachets that cost about 15p each, £1.80 in total, that she would have been entitled to leave with if they were inside her DC's stomachs as she had paid £12 for them to have unlimited cereal and crumpets and toast with jam/Nutella? I'm fairly sure that the hotel expects and budgets for each guest to eat more than the one crumpet and box of cereal that the DC had. The hotel hasn't really suffered any loss because of it. Would it be stealing if they ate more than £6 worth of cereal and crumpets from the buffet in one sitting? Or if they took more than they could eat and left it on the table so it had to be thrown away?

I'm not sure it is any more morally wrong than charging £6 for a serving of cereal and bread. Certainly no one has ever been convicted of taking a few extra jams from a breakfast buffet...

Imagine going to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet and then eating what you want + taking 6 extra pizzas as you leave then trying to argue you didnt steal them because:

A) they dont cost the resteraunt that much to make (you could do it for say £2 when they charge £6) so why should they charge more and make a profit (the whole premis of a resteraunt)

B) and if you had eaten them there then and they where 'in your stomach when you left' (more than you possibly even could eat so not really a point) it would have been ok

lol utterly ridiculous.

WiddlinDiddlin · 19/08/2021 18:25

Yes its stealing.

Yes its also why the breakfasts are so fucking expensive.

Yes when I stay at a hotel for conferences etc I have indeed been known to make a bacon and sausage butty and then be too full from croissants and fruit salad to eat it and so I've wrapped it for later.

I think snagging 10/12 extra nutellas/jams etc is pushing cheeky to beyond reasonable though, but no ones going to call the police over it.

AbsolutelyPatsy · 19/08/2021 18:29

if i do that, with mayonnaise for example, i learn my lesson when they leak in my handbag!

newnortherner111 · 19/08/2021 18:32

OP is a thief. The unreasonable rip-off charges of the place concerned are not an excuse for theft.

AbsolutelyPatsy · 19/08/2021 18:44

yes it is stealing of course

Gingerkittykat · 19/08/2021 18:48

I would have cleared the shelves of jam, butter, Nutella, milk, sugar and anything else I could get my hands on to make up for the £6 for cereal!

Borisjohnsonshairbrush · 19/08/2021 18:51

hardly a crime but YABU to want to go somewhere that spend that money and complain about it and then take advantage of supplies. they places have to charge more because people are greedy,.

JesusIsAnyNameFree · 19/08/2021 18:52

The OP didn't have to buy the cereal though so I don't see how the fact she did makes people think it somehow justifies the thievery.

Borisjohnsonshairbrush · 19/08/2021 18:54

@MummyInTheNecropolis

it will probably be in the DM tomorrow too as breaking news

Flatdisco · 19/08/2021 18:55

Mumsnet is fucking mental

Blanketpolicy · 19/08/2021 18:55

Yes, it is stealing, you are a thief and you are setting your dc a very poor example.

If your dc decide to lift something from a shop because they think something else they bought was too expensive will you tell them it is ok too?

illuyankas · 19/08/2021 18:56

1 or 2, maybe. 10 ~12 that's embarrassing. Especially in front of your children, you are basically teaching them that's ok to steal.

Popsicle438 · 19/08/2021 19:01

I would be embarrassed to take the pots of jam etc. It's not a good example for children and yes, technically it's stealing since you had no intention of eating them at breakfast.
I don't even think the price was high. Remember how badly the hospitality business was hit during lockdown. They might be trying to recoup a bit of what they lost.

Anonymous48 · 19/08/2021 19:09

I didn't find it to be clear from your OP, but from other people's comments it sounds as though you purchased the continental breakfast buffet option for your kids. Is that right? In which case it's very unfair to complain about the cost of the mini boxes of cereal being 6 quid each, because that's not the case. The 6 quid was for the buffet, at which your kids could have eaten as much as they wanted. You could have told them no because they had bacon sandwiches. You didn't have to pay for the buffet on top. But just because you did, doesn't give you the right to take stuff away from it to use later on your holiday! Literally the definition of stealing.

GreyhoundG1rl · 19/08/2021 19:10

@Gingerkittykat

I would have cleared the shelves of jam, butter, Nutella, milk, sugar and anything else I could get my hands on to make up for the £6 for cereal!
Which is probably why the cost is what it is.
chesirecat99 · 19/08/2021 19:45

@Iamthewombat

So the measure of whether something is wrong is whether anybody has been ‘convicted’ for it? Interesting!
It is relevant when considering whether it is theft in the eyes of the law.

Whether it is morally wrong, is a different matter.

From a philosophical point of view, the hotel will have priced the breakfast based on how much they expect the average person to take from the buffet. The cost of what the average person will take will be more than the cost of a box of cereal, one crumpet and 6 sachets of jam. Therefore, the hotel has suffered no financial loss from OP's actions. I would say it's slightly morally dubious but not necessarily morally wrong as the OP hasn't taken more than a "fair" amount for her £6.

It's nothing like @mam0918's straw man argument about taking 6 pizzas from the Pizza Hut buffet Hmm It's more akin to taking a Danish pastry back to your room that you didn't have room to finish at breakfast.

Out of interest, would it be morally wrong to go to an all you eat buffet and only eat the expensive items so the restaurant makes a loss? I've seen plenty of articles on MSE and in the press, even a C4 documentary, about how to "beat the buffet" by bypassing the cheap pastas, side dishes and chips and heading for the seafood, crispy duck and chocolate fountain but no one questions that as being morally wrong or unfair.