shop lifting

I love the complexity of our brains.

Going back to telling lies, being able to tell lies is part of normal psychological development – theory of mind. It's a useful development in social intercourse, thus the problems we have with people who are "brutally" honest, whether because of a condition like autism or out of cruelty. I believe it begins to develop in a child's fourth year. I'm remembering (or mis-remembering) this from that series of programmes some years ago about child development: Child of Our Time.

Not dumb absenta, just sweet and sensitive.

Love it absentg !!

I'm pretty sure that I don't have Asperger's Syndrome, but when I was a kid I just believed everything I was told and, consequently, didn't really understand that such a thing as a lie existed, so didn't tell them. (Maybe I was especially dumb.) My father and sister once told me that cinemas has special showings of movies such as Lassie and Rin Tin Tin for dogs, rather like the children's Saturday morning pictures. This was, according to them, the reason why the seats folded up – so that the dogs could see the screen – and the usherettes came round during the interval with trays of dog biscuits and bones. I believed every word and when they told me it was just a story that they had made up, I cried for days. (Yes, I obviously was an especially dumb kid.)

He is also very highly principled, , but it makes him judgemental. He was house sharing whilst he did his MSc and one of the other men was cheating on his long-time girlfriend. She begged my grandson to tell her the truth, and he did, thinking she deserved to know. She promptly told her BF, but stayed with him, and my grandson felt obliged to leave the house. The other men took the view that the 'lads' had to stick together.

Even children on the autistic spectrum will lie if they are fearful, but I know what you mean Greatnan.

One of my grandsons is incapable of lying - he has Asperger's Syndrome and takes everything you say literally. It can make him appear very rude - if asked if a new dress suits a girl, he is quite likely to say 'No, it's horrible'. He has had a problem keeping girl friends!

Research shows that everyone lies - it's just a matter of degree and frequency. Some peope are pathological liars and will dissimulate when there is no need. Others are truthful to the point of brutality about some issues and many would say they are less humane than inveterate liars because of the hurt they inflict on others. Those same 'truthful' people will lie about trivial things, but relish being hurtful.

Psychometric tests with built-in lie scales will expose most people in their lies, unless you have studied psychology and learned how to lie in order to pass the lie tests. Me, I never lie!

I have often wondered about honesty. I'm almost pathologically honest - and could not bear the shame of being caught nicking anything. And I just don't want anything obtained dishonestly - it is tainted in my eyes. But I know some folks would steal anything if they knew they could get away with it.

I'm not a 'good' person in the goody goody sense - I've done illegal stuff like helping the hunt saboteurs, being an illegal immigrant when forgot to renew my residents permit while au pairing in Austria, and driving without a license because I found it difficult to learn to drive with someone watching me, so I took the car off on my own in quiet times.

But stealing is beyond me. Not much good at fibbing either - it shows too clearly on my face.

I just wonder why some folks can shoplift or steal anything without a second though, and others would never dream of it?

You know at the self service tills in M and S, where it says "how many carrier bags have you had?" ready to charge you for 'em, which button do you press, 1, 2, 3, or None?

Even if you've had one.

Not that I'm advocating stealing anything!!!!

He's a podgy little thing. Not the best things to have pinched.

He was a very up-market thief - wine and cheese! Perhaps he was having a party. I wonder which wine and which cheese?
My brother dared me to steal an apple from the display outside a greengrocer's shop when I was about eight. I did but confessed it to my priest (I was still devout then) and still expected the police to come and arrest me. I never did it again.

Todays on-line Daily Telegraph had a pretty good article on this topic by Bryony Gordon. She did highlight the anomaly between AWT's "punishment" and that meted out to some of the rioters.

I was quite sympathetic until I read his explanation. He said 'what went through my head only time will tell' as though it was a momentary aberration - what five times! It's understandable, though, that he will want to put the best possible spin on the situation.

One rule for one etc, etc,

Five times? Didn't realise that. Just shows what some people can get away with.

I do wonder if he had been an ordinary OAP caught after shop-lifting 5 times in the same store if they would of been so understanding or forgiving.

Was that the teemager who was looting during the riots?

The teenager should have made sure he had had a good business arrangement for several years with the supermarket before he pinched it.