7 yr old DS stealing

[HypodeemicNerdle]

I'm struggling to know what to do for the best here.

I have a lovely 7yr old DS, behaves himself at school, generally a kind and loving boy, but he is stealing.

At the moment it is small stuff, sweets and chocolate from home (helping himself when no one is watching and hiding the packets). We've also had a couple of things from school, plastic coins (used for maths) and drinking straws (I'm guessing from school milk).

We caught him before Christmas with sweet wrappers under his pillow along with elastic bands and nail clippers . A few days later we found the plastic coins and more sweet wrappers in his school bag. We made DS return the coins to school and apologise, removed his ds as punishment spoke to him about why stealing was wrong. I thought he'd understood.

Today I went into his desk to find something for his homework and found a partially eaten bar of chocolate as well as other wrappers. I checked his school bag and found the drinking straws and 2 tubes of ointment.

I have had a serious word with him this time. While I know magpie kids aren't unusual I want to make sure that I get the message through to him now that it's not ok.

Has anyone else been through this and how did you handle it?

My parents went through it when I was 7! They gave me a huge telling off and told me if it happened again they'd drive me to the police station.

I'm honest as anything now! It was just a phase. I nicked food at home because I was hungry and didn't get many treats. I nicked stuff at school because I was unpopular and I thought if I gave it to other kids I would be more popular.

Thanks for that marmitecat, I know it's not unusual but it's so embarrassing. I'll sit DS down after school again today now I've calmed down and have another chat