My Sticky Fingers

So, in the past few days, I've witnessed two blatent shoplifting/stealing incidents that made me think. Let me recount said incidents:

-The first was the other day in Grand Central Station. I was done with my interview and waiting for the train back up to Sarah's house in Eastchester. I had been nervous so hadn't really eaten all day, so I was perusing various snack stands in GCT tring to decide what to get to eat. Since you are wondering, I ended up with an apple croissant and a Sprite. Anyways, at one of the snack stands, the clerk was restocking the shelves. A bag of chips fell out of the big box and on to the floor. Before I could go over and pick it up to give back to the clerk, someone walking by stooped over, picked it up and walked off with it like it was no big deal.

-The other was today at Macey's. I had forgotten something in the cheese section, so I walked back over that way, passing the bulk candy as I went. I saw a kid, oh about 10 or so, and he was lurking by the candy. He was trying to be stealthy, but I saw him set the lid to one of the candy containers back down and slide at least one piece of candy up his sleeve and walk away.

I was a little taken aback at both of these. I mean, I get that when some people are little (4 or 5), they take something from the grocery store because they haven't quite figure out that when Mom and Dad go to the store, they give the clerk money for the stuff they get and they don't just take stuff without paying. And I get the whole concept of finders keepers, but you can't tell me that the guy who boosted the chips in GCT thought those didn't belong to the kiosk that was right there. And I know that the kid in the grocery store knew what he was doing was wrong- his eyes were too shifty and he was too old for it to be otherwise.

I guess I actually don't have any thoughts other than that I think it is a sad commentary on what we think is acceptable. And I for one am glad that my conscience is worth more than a bag of chips and a piece of candy.