Have you ever stolen anything???(Light hearted)

Just around the time sweet rationing finished I’d been sent to the village shop for a few things. The lady in the shop went through to the storeroom for something and while she was gone I took a small bar of chocolate and slipped it into my pocket. When she came back she added up the items and then asked me to produce the chocolate! I was terrified and handed it back with lots if sorries. She said I was to confess to my mum when I got home but I was too frightened, my mum was very strict and would have given me a hiding. I lived in fear for days and then of course my mum went to the shop herself one day and came back absolutely furious that not only had I been a thief, I’d lied by omission and damaged the family’s reputation. I got the anticipated good hiding and sent to bed with no supper. My mum wasn’t cruel, she just wouldnt tolerate bad behaviour. I never stole anything again. I was about seven at the time.

I stole a cherry from outside a greengrocers when I was about 10. I remember the awful battle with my conscience and the fear of being caught. I lived in a small community and was sure wagging tongues would turn it into a scandal!

As a teenager I went for afternoon tea at a department store. The friend I was with ate a Club biscuit then reassembled the foil and paper sleeve and put it back on the cake stand to avoid paying. I was horrified and very impressed at the same time.

I stole a £1 out of the teachers drawer at school, as my friends dad had died and we didn’t have money to pay for home economic items, as the teacher was a bully and always humiliated us in her class, we were like a coupe of peacocks going into our cookery lesson ( it wasn’t to last) A £1 was a fortune back then so being poor we both shared it with our mum and told her we’d “found it” so we also got a good dinner from it. Needless to say once it was discovered missing we stood out like a couple of “lottery winners” ( as we’d become very popular through sharing our I’ll gotten gains/sweets with everyone) there was no malice in what I did, but I also had t thought it through…. It was a really distressing time when I was accused… not because of the amount or the actual theft… but because if lost the trust of my favourite teacher…and that broke me more than poverty ever could.

Most of these aren't conscious "theft" including the OP. Only the sweetie-stealing as children.

When my father, born 1907, was about 9, he stole an apple from a street stall. His guilty conscience was still troubling him when he was 93.

Can't recall how old I was (under 8 as we moved abroad when I was 8), but I decided I'd like to collect stamps. I joined a stamp club and sent for my first pack and put them in my album. A short time later, another pack of stamps arrived "on approval". I didn't understand I had to either pay for them or return them so I duly stuck them in my album. When a third pack arrived, with a letter saying I hadn't paid for the 2nd pack, I got scared but fortunately for me, we then sold our house and moved to Singapore for 3 years so they never caught up with me! Aged 67 now, but still feel guilty. (Sort of hope that the letters got forwarded to my parents and they might have sorted it out but they never mentioned it to me if they did so maybe the "guilt" was left with me as a lesson! - It certainly worked!)

I we were recently in Bakewell, the family were sitting outside a cafe having coffee. My daughter decided to take her two year old into a craft shop to look at things, a while later they came back and granddaughter had a lovely bag over her arm, I said thats a nice bag you have bought her. My daughter said oh no I didn’t buy it she must have walked out with it.
My granddaughter went hysterical when it was taken off her to go back to the shop.

To all who 'stole' animals from hateful owners I salute you. Wonderful people you are.

I've eaten the odd grape to see if they are sweet , so yes technically stealing.

No, not so much as a sweet from the pic n mix in Woollies, tempting as they were.

I did once get back from a shopping trip to the local Boots with my youngest GS only to find when I got home & lifted him out of the pushchair he was sitting on a Maybelline powder compact, he must have picked it up while I was looking at the makeup and it must have slid down the side of the pushchair. I took it back the next day.

Never

I was once persuaded by some older girls in my street to pinch apples from our neighbours garden (at the back of our house). The branches were in easy reach of our fence. My mother saw me doing it. She made me throw the apples back over the fence and gave me a clip around the ear for stealing!

Secondwind

Yes. A dog from the neighbour of a former colleague. It was a young hog that had never been allowed inside, was living a miserable life existence in the garden and constantly being goaded by the children. Authorities were contacted, but they said there was no evidence of ill-treatment.
We left the back-gate open so that they thought she had escaped.

Ah! Surely that was more of a rescue than a theft. Well done!

VioletSky

Only food when I was very young, broke and hungry

Yes, most people who say they would never steal anything have never been in a situation like you were.

I’m horrified by the “good hidings” and “clips round the ear” apparently considered appropriate as punishments. Such violence in some families.

Never, I know I’m boring.

Should add, if my children didn’t have food I would.

I stole one sherbet flying saucer from a sweet shop in Bourton on the Water when I was about eight years old. It bothered me for years after.

In the late 70s my friend and I went to a local pub/restaurant for a meal and a drink after work. The waitress left the bill when she delivered the food and we should have paid at a sort of hole in the wall in leaving. Unfortunately we were so busy chatting (and a bit tipsy) that we walked out without paying. The next morning at work my friend suddenly said "0h my goodness, we didn't pay last night".
Mortified she phoned the pub and explained and they said not to worry,pay next time you come in. We couldn't go back for another couple of weeks but when we did, guess what, we blooming well forgot to pay again! Honestly not deliberately. We just could not face going back again and it was many years before I could bring myself to go there again and never with her!

Been in a book shop many years ago and walking down the road afterwards and looking down at the pushchair saw my toddler clutching “The Wrath of God”. I tore back to the shop in a terrible state expecting any minute to experience the title of the little book.

I bought a jacket & the first time I wore it I set the alarm off when I came out of the supermarket. The security tag was still in the jacket. I was mortified. Took the jacket back to the shop. The assistant was very off with me until I produced the receipt & described the shop assistant who had served me.

I haven’t, no, but my DD when aged about 6 took some sweets from a shop whilst on holiday with her DF. He marched her back to the shop when he found out and made her apologise to the shop keeper. He paid for them but stopped her pocket money for the rest of the week. When he returned her to me he made her confess. She’s never forgotten it. She’s 39 now.

I was at the village school, probably about five or six; for some reason I decided to raid Mrs Holland's desk, I gave everyone in the class a new nib for their pens. She did not notice for several days, I owned up and got a slap on the bottom much to Sid Brown's amusement.

Parked my son outside the greengrocers in his pushchair - in the days when you could - and went in to start buying a large order of fruit and veg. Another customer came in and said 'There's a baby out there working his way through the strawberries.' Our red faces matched for different reasons.
My Darling Dad 'stole' a dog that was being treated appallingly. We had him for years, a lovely boy. Technically stealing, but we felt it was fully justified.

I was in my very early teens, decided to steal a packet of sweets from our corner shop. Didn’t even consider the fact that the shop owner knew my parents! Apart from that, occasional stationery from work, who doesn’t! ;) but other than this have been a very good lady..