When I was 6, I had $.10 to spend on candy and went into the Kwik Pik store while my mom waited in the car outside. I paid for my candy, picked up the bag and as I was exiting the door, saw I had this pack of $.05 bubblegum I hadn’t paid for in my other hand that I had forgotten to put back. I crossed over the threshold and felt I was past the point of no return. I have confessed my guilt over this multiple times to my priest in the confessional booth as I did have a choice to go back to return it but was scared to.
I know so many people who cannot do the wrong thing but that seems to be far and few in between. I am just broken at the dishonesty, the lying, the theft, the violence, the deception in this world - it is almost as if people have had decency bred out of them and we are left to fend against these animals.
I took two or three tiny fake coins from an on-display tiny slot machine, probably no bigger than a foot, or so tall, when I was nine or ten. Apparently, it was meant for businessmen who liked a toy on their desk.
My dad later saw me with them, and asked where I got them. I told him, and he told me I had stolen them.
I’ve never forgotten that. I had no way to get them back, and the store was 45 minutes away.