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You're on a conference with work. You're let out at lunchtime but provided no lunch. A conference in the same facility has had lunch provided and there is a huge stack of sandwiches and drinks outside their conference hall (more than they could eat). You know that their lunch break is half an hour later than yours and that nobody would see you if you took some food.
If you take some, is it theft in the same way as if you'd stolen it from a food shop?
| Yes | 28 | |
| No | 47 |
Yes it is something you took that was not yours so it is theft. Neither you nor you company paid for those sandwhiches and the only reason there was nothing at your conference is that you/your company didn't order and pay. Stealing is stealing even if inconsequential.
Technically, I'd consider it "theft" but it's so petty that it's not worth making a big deal about it.
If I'd bought a bunch of sandwiches, left them out like that and saw someone whom it wasn't intended for taking one, I might say something like,
"Oh, those sandwiches are meant for ______, but I don't mind that you have one."
I wouldn't want them to put it back, but I also wouldn't want them going and telling their friends there are free sandwiches to be had.
If you take something that doesn't belong to you with out paying for it that is theft. Now is theft always wrong? No. Robin Hood was the man.
Yes, it's theft. However, in this situation I think it would be okay to take some.
I'd eat. seriously, what kinda shitty conference doesn't provide lunch? I'll deal with morality and karma when I die, now I'm hungry.
The food is likely to have already been paid for. So it isn't theft in the strictest sense of the word. How much of an opportunist are you?
For the title question, yes it is technically theft. For your last question, I personnally wouldn't consider it the same as stealing from a food shop, so no.
It's literally theft, because you'd be taking something that wasn't yours. I don't know how it works, but presumably the people in the other conference had the sandwiches paid for by their company as an expense, so you're stealing from the company. It isn't as if the sandwiches had no owner or anything like that. So yeah, it's theft. Not such a bad sort of theft because you're stealing from a company and not an individual.
Also, I would expect the facility to have at least vending machines or something :P
Yes.
What you should have done is asked someone who owns (or managers) that food to see if you could take one piece. Of which it would then not be theft.
By the way, it takes about 21 days to starve to death. Leave their food alone.
If you really thought what you were doing was right, why conceal it?
You should have asked. A man must always abstain from even the appearance of wrong doing (Thanks Julius Caesar).