T for Theft

When I was younger, not exactly sure what age, I was in the store with my grandmother.  We had finished going through the aisles and picking out the necessities from the list written in my grandmother’s handwriting, and we were in the checkout lane.  We were waiting for our turn to pay for the items, and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a small yellow tube of mini M&M’s.  Wanting them very much, I took them off the shelf and asked my grandmother if she would buy them for me.  She had her reasons and said “No, we don’t need to buy that.”  I agreed, and didn’t fight with her about it putting them back on the shelf.  Unfortunately, I really wanted those M&M’s.  So, when my grandmother was talking to the cashier, and paying for the groceries, I quickly and silently took the bright yellow tube from the shelf, and stuffed it in my pocket.

Amazingly my grandmother never noticed the M&M’s in my pocket.  We drove all the way home, and my grandmother dropped me off at my house.  I was eating the M&M’s in my room, when my mother came in and asked me, “Where did you get those M&M’s.”  I said, “Oh these, Grandma got them for me at the store.”  Mom said, “That was nice of her,” and went away.  

The second and last time that I ever stole was at a small farm stand.  I was with my father, and we were picking out veggies for dinner that night.  That was when I stumbled onto a huge basket filled with walnuts still in the shell.  I had seen walnuts like this before but had never had one for myself.  I didn’t think my Dad would let me have one, and I didn’t feel guilty because there were so many, so I took one and hid it in my hand.

When we got into the car to go home I took the walnut out and was looking at it, my Dad immediately asked me, “Where did you get that?”  I said that I took it from inside the store.  He immediately and I mean immediately stopped the car.  He started driving back to the store and I ask him what he was doing.  He hands me a nickel and said, “Go back, apologize, and pay for it.  Say you’re very sorry, and that you won’t steal again.”  I was embarrassed and mad.  I couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal.  It was just a silly little walnut.  There were hundreds of them in that basket.  My dad said that taking anything from a store without paying for it was unacceptable.

I was forced to go into the store and pay for the walnut.  I still remember the look on the girl’s face when I walked in and handed her a nickel for the walnut.  She told me that it was ok, and that I didn’t have to pay for it, but I knew I had to or my dad would be mad.  I was so embarrassed.

I have only stolen two things in my entire life.  A walnut, and a tube of M&M’s.  It felt good when I stole those two things, but I didn’t feel good about it afterwards.  I learned that you should pay for anything and everything that you take at a store, and that stealing an inexpensive thing is the same as stealing an expensive thing.  It is all still stealing.

To this day I have never stolen anything, I have paid for it, and if I didn’t want to pay for it I didn’t take it.  That’s just how the world is supposed to work.