2014-0425 Is it Wrong?

Hi All –

In this Friday’s class, I posed the following scenario:

You are shopping at Target when you see an elderly woman look around and furtively pocket something.  Should you tell an employee?  Would it make a difference if the person stealing were young?  Does the gender make a difference? 

You will notice that not all the details of the situation are given, are they?  For instance, how is the elderly woman dressed?  Does she appear as someone in need?  Or is she wearing jewelry and an expensive coat?  The answer to those questions made a difference to our group as to what the best course of action would be.  If she appeared needy, many in our group would look the other way, in other words, not report her.  If she appeared to be well-off, then it might be assumed that she was a thrill-seeker in which case the group was more likely to report her to an employee. 

In the case of the elderly woman, gender did not make a difference.  An older man would not be reported by the majority of our group if he seemed to be in need but if he were well-off, again he would probably be reported to an employee.

Some in our group would try a different tack and speak directly to the person.  Certainly, a person caught shoplifting by another customer would normally be mortified, and that in itself might cause the speedy return of the item to the shelves. 

Another possibility would be that the person would be outraged at the accusation, indignantly explaining that they were intending to pay for the item at the checkstand.

Included in this mix of possibilities is the chance that the person was mentally unstable, in which case it would be best not to engage in any encounter.  In this situation, alerting an employee would be the best course of action.

In the scenario where the person stealing an item were young, the consensus of the group was that the theft should be reported to an employee.  Gender in this case didn’t matter either.  The feeling was that young people still need correction to help them become productive, law-abiding citizens. 

You might feel that stealing is wrong under any circumstances.  It shouldn’t matter if the person is young, old, male or female.  But are laws written by fallible human beings the only laws we ought to live by?  If a man steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family as explored in the novel “Les Misérables” by Victor Hugo, he definitely has broken a law.  Should he then be brought to justice?  Is justice served by putting someone in jail who is merely trying to provide food to his family? Or is there a moral justice which trumps man’s justice and views the theft with compassion and forgiveness?

Have a great week!

Kevin