The Gall

I just had someone steal from me while I sat ten feet away watching them.

It was the silly old woman on the janitorial crew at church. I see them almost every week, as I often work late. When I do, she comes in to dust my office, including my desk, while I'm still sitting at it! She will reach over me and move my papers as I'm trying to work. Often, I just get up and leave for a few minutes because there's no stopping her; I'm the one in her way.

Well, I was sitting in my office this evening and she steps in without looking at me. She was kind of turned to one side and began dusting the shelf across the room with my candy jars on it. I could tell she hadn't seen that I was there. Then without hesitation, she opened a candy jar, reached in and stuffed two handfuls of hard candy into her pocket. It's the candy I give to kids on Sundays.

As I sat there and watched her, she dropped a few peppermints and when she bent over to pick them up, she saw me. She startled and immediately went back to dusting. I just sat there silently in stunned disbelief. Then she awkwardly reached into her pocket, withdrew a candy and began unwrapping it. Her shaky voice explained that she forgot her candy at home and when you get older you forget stuff like that. "You don't know, being young and all," she said.

I never said a word. She knew what she'd done and she knew I'd watched her do it. I don't care about candy; if she'd asked I would have offered as I do with everyone. I'm just intrigued by the unashamed willingness to steal trivial things. She may steal candy from me every week and I'll bet she never felt bad about it until tonight when she was caught in the act.

It's not the value of the thing you steal that makes it wrong. It's the act of taking something, anything, that doesn't belong to you that's wrong.