To think that it is not acceptable to steal under any circumstances?

[electra]

Recently when I visited a friend of mine he had a very nice, expensive looking clock on his wall. He told me that he had stolen it when drunk - it had been delivered to a shop but was outside in its packaging. I thought this was truly awful but because he was drunk he seems to think that reduces the whole thing to a joke.

He went on to say 'well it's ok to steal to protect your family' er, no it isn't!!

crikey - never imagined this thread would turn out in such a way....but then you can never tell!

YANBU

sorry I don't buy the "it's ok to steal if you need to feed your family".

Not here, not in any country in the world, no matter how frigging poor they are.

God, this whole "kids are getting blown up in Gaza" is ridiculous. Yes, it's tragic but surely that doesn't mean that everything else that is deemed 'less bad' is somehow negated? Where's the sense in that? Christ, Global Tragedy: F*ck the small crimes! It's a bit like someone losing a leg and everyone piping up "Well consider yourself lucky you didn't lose both": Ergo, totally unhelpful and rather besides the point. Rock up to someone who's had their house burgled and say "be thankful you don't live in Gaza!" and see how that helps. Or maybe pipe up with a "Well your house could have burnt down; consider yourself lucky". Are we not allowed to love the things we own?

So whilst I'd rather have my clock nicked than see a child blown up in Gaza or be date-raped, equally I'd rather none of it happened. I still think people who steal are thieving scum however they chose to weakly justify it ("I was drunk", "rich b*stards deserve it", etc., etc.). You can chose to shrink your moral compass because terrible things are happening in the world but my view is that the small stuff still counts. It ALL counts. If we all stole and looked around for lame excuses to justify it (or not) then the world would be even more disastrous than it is now.

I don't steal. I never have. Not even a penny sweet. Because I believe what people own, trivial or expensive, is theirs to keep and to give as they see fit. It's not down to some light-fingered stranger to decide what he or she can pick from my life and decide what I can do without.

kitstwin well said.

I could not believe the Gaza comment and was dithering over whether to reply.
You put that really well

no I wouldn't let them starve to death.

Believe it or not, Zimbabwe (where food is short, inflation ridiculous, unemployment high, no state benefits, has a relativly low rate of thefts - car jackings more common now, but theft of food type stuffs no worse than here.

In fact probably less than here, the Zimbabwean people have a very, ermm how should I put it? "low tolerance" towards people who steal from shops etc.....if there's any hint of someone having shop lifted something then you can bet your bottom dollar that they will be pounced on outside the shop (by the general public!) like a pack of wolves (and yes I did witness it on more than one occasion - not very pleasant).

Quite, kitswins

but the chances are if you're at a stage where they're starving to death and you need to steal to feed them - no-one else is going to have anything to steal either!

most people in that situation are already cutting roots and leaves from random plants to eat as food as it is, as will most of their neighbours.

In most places if you're starving to death, you neighbours are too, if your neighbours aren't starving to death you're more than likely going to get shot/killed if you try and get anywhere close enough to steal their food.

and like i said you wouldn't want to try and steal from a shop as you're likely to be attacked by a mob as soon as you leave the shop, or if you're lucky shot/beaten up by a guard, then beaten up in the police station and then treated like crap in prison.

Most people agree it's not worth it out there and eat leaves/roots/any animal that they can catch

that's where I'm talking about in Africa.

It is human nature to steal off your fellow man to survive. I mean people have even resorted to eating the dead in some cases of desperation.

I don't think anyone here has actually experienced starvation or witnessed their child wasting away so it is hard to morally commit yourself to never stealing to feed your children surely.....