When I was in the fifth grade an adult friend of the family gave me a University of Texas spiral notebook. It was white with an orange longhorn picture on the front. I put my name inside the front cover and took it to school.
That same day, I came back to my desk after changing classes for math and it was gone. After searching the classroom I found it in Mike Jones’ desk. He had marked out my name and drawn pictures on the longhorn. When confronted by the teacher and myself he claimed to have found it. Never mind that he found it in my desk and it had my name on it. The twisted idea that simply finding it gave him ownership somehow made sense to Mike Jones.
Having taught elementary school for 11 years, I hear it all the time. “I found it,” is the reply all to quickly given by students who just happen to be in the possession of something that belongs to another student. I’m forever telling my students that just because you find something does not mean that it belongs to you.
I don’t think the line between finding something and stealing something is all that hard to see. Something is either yours, or it isn’t, there’s really no gray area.
Last night I left our garage open by mistake. I’ve done if before, but up until this time I’ve been lucky, if you can call it that.
This time, however, some items were missing. First, my gas powered trimmer. Now, while having to replace the trimmer is a hassle, I wasn’t really all that happy with the way it was working, so it’s not that big of a loss. However, the second item this person “found” was my air compressor, which I’ve written about here. This one hurt. I love my air compressor.
What these people do is drive through the alleys late at night looking for garages that have been accidentally left open. When they see an open garage, they dash in, “find” a few things and dash out.
I guess in the big scheme of things we were lucky. The items lost are easily replaceable and we weren’t hurt.
But I’m left with this question…
When will “I found it” stop being an acceptable excuse for stealing?
3 comments:
It's hard to admit, but there are bad people in the world. People whose selfishness is significantly higher than the average bear.
Most of them have limits. For example, the person(s) who stole your stuff are fine doing that, but maybe they wouldn't steal your car.
Other people will steal your car but not burglarize your house. Others will break into your house, but won't tie you up and rob you at gunpoint.
Some will rob you but would not kill you.
And finally, there are people in our world who will kill you to meet some small need of theirs. There are even people who will torture and kill a child in return for a single orgasm.
It's unthinkable, but yeah, there are some deeply selfish people out there. You ran into a couple of them. You will have to replace some items.
they have to live with themselves, and some of them don't even realize how much it sucks to be them.
That is a super duper big-time bummer!!!! I am sad for you!
Has "I found it" ever been an acceptable excuse? Furthermore, do you believe that those who offer such an excuse are doing so with sincerity? It seems to me that it is more like a convenient bit of rhetoric used by thieves and liars. Of course, the real surprise is not that there are such people in the world. The shocking truth is that for some reason God's gracious hand keeps some of us from being so overtaken by greed.
Maybe a better question to ask is this: What are our sins and how do we rationalize them? What is the "I found it" we use to justify snapping at our spouses or indulging our pride?
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