Thieves

[Corleone]

I dislike thieves with a passion. Since I aide for a teacher third block, I usually drop my bookbag off in the back of the room. Well, today I was grading papers up at the front at this table, and I wasn't paying attention to my bookbag because no one goes to the back of the room, and that's where the teacher is. So, as I'm grading papers the teacher tells the students to go get their folders, which are in the back of the room. We've been reading a book, and those folders contain our work that goes along with the book. Paying attention to the papers I was grading, I didn't really look in the back of the room, but when I went to get my own book out, it was gone. Someone stole my book. At first I thought, it's odd it's not here because I know I didn't leave it anywhere, but I'll wait till I get home to be certain. Get home, look EVERYWHERE for my book, and it's still missing. Stealing is completely wrong, and it makes me furious. I hate knowing that I can't do anything about it, because I can't tell the teacher someone stole my book because no one will speak up and admit they stole it, and there's no way to prove they stole it. I had to call my dad and he's going to get me another book today, because I need it for an assignment that's two test grades. That's probably why they stole it. They need one and they didn't have one to do their assignment, so stealing someone else's was their best option.

O'well. I feel sorry for whoever took it. I've learned my lesson, never leave my bookbag out of my reach. If they want it that bad that they're going to go down to such low depths in order to get it, then they can have it, because I'm not the one living a sad, thieving life; instead, I'm going to be positive and forgive whoever did it, because I'm not going to worry about it anymore. I've ranted enough and just because I forgive whoever did it, I'm not going to be a fool and forget about it being stolen. I am going to tell my teacher that I need to put my bookbag behind his desk because there're thieves in his classroom. If he tries to say something to the class I'll stop him, because there's nothing that can be done about it now. Makes me mad, but at the end of the day, it's not going to ruin my day.

 

[Jazzy]

I despise thieves also Jughead. I must say after reading what you wrote, I have nothing but admiration for you. It's hard to forgive and move on but you've shown that it's the right thing to do. I thank you for your post as others can learn from the positive acceptance of something not worth pursuing. Thumbs up to you Jughead!

 

[stm]

Yes I dislike thieves as much as anyone here.



I remember a time when I was 9-10 years old and I had my Yu-Gi-Oh cards (about a hundred of them) and left them at my table. I went to the washroom and came back to find them all gone. So much money I lost from those cards and I remember I was crying and crying about them. My mom also got upset too.



Well a week later, this guy came up to me and said lookin for your cards loser?. I said ugh, yes. Do you know where they are?.



He starts laughing and said something Well I took it and rubbed my *** on it, then he started laughing.



I was just so mad and I had no way of controlling my anger: I basically beat the c*** out of him. He was bleeding all over his face and I just demolished him. I was just so angry I couldn't believe it.



I only got suspended for 3 days and that guy got suspended for 2 days for stealing personal property. I vowed that day to always take deep breaths and never let my anger get the best of me.



The thing that you all have to realize is that, no matter how much we hate thieves, there's a reason behind most of it. For example in your situation Jughead, you left your book somewhere out of your reach and you were distracted. This is what I call begging fo your stuff to be stolen because the thief knows that you are distracted and that he will get away with it. When someone knows they will get away with something, they will most likely act on that to get free stuff.



I bet if any of you found out that you can steal 1 billion dollars from someone, all of you would do it, even knowing that it's someone else's billion dollars.



What I'm trying to say is, thieving is bad when it happens to you, but you will never understand the human nature of it until you do it yourself.



Sorry for the long response...

 

[Corleone]

I bet if any of you found out that you can steal 1 billion dollars from someone, all of you would do it, even knowing that it's someone else's billion dollars.



What I'm trying to say is, thieving is bad when it happens to you, but you will never understand the human nature of it until you do it yourself.

I don't care if I saw $100 or $100,000, if it doesn't belong to me, I'm not going to take it. Vice versa, if I have something that doesn't belong to you, don't take it. Honesty is a virtue. It'll get you places in life. I garuntee if you returned the 100,000 or 1 billion, you'd be given riches in reward anyhow, except it'd be fairly gained and deserved; however, regardless, it's the right thing to do, whether you receive a reward or nothing at all. The true reward is knowing you were honest and you have to live with zero regrets or burdens.

 

[Dennis]

When i was 9, i was over at my cousins house who lived in a three story house in New Jersey, while i live in a Junior room apartment in New York. I was really jealous of him so i stole like 4 dollars worth of quarters from his piggy bank. His mom found out and so did mine. I was so embarrassed that i learned my lesson never to steal from people i personally know again. I said sorry and i really meant it.



Although, i would steal from people i didn't know. Nothing like actual money or ipods or stuff like that, never. But people who are stupid enough to think its safe to buy expensive cap cars and put them out in the open. I would take those kind of things. Well really just cap cars cause i collect them. If i found a large bill on the floor i would pick it up and wait for some one to retrieve it. I wouldn't go around asking people if it's there's. If nobody asks me if i found it, then i suppose either i have no contact with the suggested person or they don't care enough to ask around.

 

[stm]

I don't care if I saw $100 or $100,000, if it doesn't belong to me, I'm not going to take it. Vice versa, if I have something that doesn't belong to you, don't take it. Honesty is a virtue. It'll get you places in life. I garuntee if you returned the 100,000 or 1 billion, you'd be given riches in reward anyhow, except it'd be fairly gained and deserved; however, regardless, it's the right thing to do, whether you receive a reward or nothing at all. The true reward is knowing you were honest and you have to live with zero regrets or burdens.

So I think you're basically adding Karma and god (or something like god) into this and while I accept that, is not the point I was getting at.



But that's just the thing: you don't know if that's true because you've never been in a situation like that before. If you were in any kind of situation where the person, what I call begs you to steal their item, leaves there belongings in the open for you and if you took it, they would never find out.



You are 1 in god knows how many of the people who would steal money or anything if they had the chance

 

[Durandal]

I have to actually agree and believe Jughead here. I have a very similar sentiment. I'm very adherent to a policy of honesty, trustworthiness, and transparency, and it is something I value. Not really out of a moral imperative imposed on me, but something that I like to conduct myself with, and desire the most from people whom I interact with. Call it 'Nice Guy Syndrome', or whatever...sure it's not the most profitable short-term solution, maybe, but perhaps it pays a better long-term ROI. Even then, I'm not really looking to profit off it, but it is a matter of simple empathy - I'd be (and have been, too many times) quite angry and upset if someone was not honest with me, and I can see that overall negative and destructive effect dishonesty, et al. can have on others and myself to see that there is nothing particularly great to gain from a policy of dishonesty, however frequent or infrequent it may be.



Dishonesty in a way, can lead to a deterioration of individual in a addictive-like way, and succumbing to addictions often unravels a person's state of being to something altogether not too desirable.



Yes, there are opportunities for temptation to strike anyone, of course. It takes discipline to fight the base Human instinct to hoard a particular resource of value, like a large sum of money that seems easy to steal. I've been faced with the situation where I could have taken things very easily and have been the thief, but I consciously chose not to, even in consideration of the easy short-term gains I could have made. It takes a fore-brained discipline to smother out the animalistic hindbrain compulsivity, but in doing so brings perhaps the greatest sense of the greatness of Humanity, that few, if any other creatures on this planet have much comparison to.



Sorry to hear about the theft, Jughead; that was a pretty d-bag move on behalf of whomever did it. Like many others that can sympathise, I too, know what is like to be a victim of theft.