ShopliftingWhen I was young and impressionable and on holiday in France, I followed some friends into a sweet shop and we each stole something. I was so mortified by this, I returned them.
My lack of French hampered this somewhat - they had no idea why the small English boy wanted to add some chews to the open box, and saw it as an attempt by a nasty foreigner oik to contaminate their stock. Not my best day.
What have you lifted?
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chthonic, Thu 10 Jan 2008, 11:13)
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Free range eggsWe all seem to have a similar moral code when it comes to thievery - Tescos is fair game no matter how old we are, minor indiscretions in corner shops are OK up to puberty etc.
There is one place however that I love, that gives me a warm feeling of bon homie, from which I would never consider stealing. In this age of tags, security guards, and old ladies so desperate that they try to smuggle out frozen chickens under their hats, then collapse from the pain of a monumental ice cream headache, this place is an antediluvian anachronism, and long may it continue.
We live 14 miles from Manchester, on the edge of the Peak District. On a fairly major road linking two conurbations, only 5 mins walk from housing estates, there's a farm that sells bantam eggs.
You just pull in and there's an old shed to your right, with a sign asking you to return your egg boxes. The farmer's wife occasionally cooks up and sells a batch of marmalade, or jars of lurid yellow piccalilli.
A roughly torn square of cardboard indicates the prices. There's a bowl on a rickety table, full of pound coins and change. The shed is seldom staffed. The farm has been going for years, and relies totally on trust. You just take the eggs and leave the money. Whenever I visit, the money in that sacrosanct, unattended bowl is a reminder of better, halcyon days.
(, Fri 11 Jan 2008, 10:40, 2 replies)
I'd just like to point outthat I don't have that moral code.
I don't steal anything. Period.
I told the guy in tescos the other day when he didn't swipe a bottle of jack daniels properly, could have saved myself £15 but that's not the point.
Most people have a highly developed sense of self-justification - just look at all the times something along the lines of "but they probably overcharged me in the past so it's ok" has been typed in these pages.
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chenobble rocking his explorer beard on, Fri 11 Jan 2008, 12:18,
closed)
I've always wondered what "range eggs" are.And why are they always free?
Much better than those free-range eggs you see about. You have to pay for those.
(, Fri 11 Jan 2008, 17:13, closed)
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