Hmmm. Why are coupons produced? To give stuff away for free? No it is to entice people to try a product or preferentially buy one brand over the other.
Using a sequence of coupons that don’t prohibit stacking is gaming the system to take advantage of someone’s failure to fully cover their bases in the small print.
Is that cheating the system? By the standard definition of the phrase... Yes it is. Its not a lot different than circling the free samples cart in order to get your lunch for free. Illegal? No. Abuse of good faith marketing? Yes.
If your neighbor put out a sign on his garage sale that said “free shirt just for looking” would you feel comfortable coming back to look 40 times and emptying his rack clothing rack? The morality of an act isn’t based on the identity of the abused party.
People talk about this as if it were a new thing. I remember a coupon expert lady in the 70s who on TV made a big deal of getting two large shopping carts of food for cheap. I figure if industry didn’t like this they’d have put measures in place to stop it over the last 40 years.
I see it as most people who use coupons don’t save all that much money, but it does entice them to try new brands. The big savers who you hear about are publicity for coupons, encouraging people to use them, and thus try new brands without really saving much overall.
But it keeps the SampleMen employed.
Have you ever heard the story behind the book “Beat the Dealer”? Some math wizz figured out a counting system to beat the odds of blackjack (He later invented hedge funds). It worked. The book was a best seller. Casinos were scared to death it would end blackjack forever. It did the exact opposite.
Few people were effectively able to use the system. The casinos made millions off the people who didn’t put in the time and effort to do it properly. The casinos didn’t end blackjack just because some people knew how to win. It still made them money. Manufacturers and stores still issue coupons because it is still a profitable venture.
That’s a much better analogy than your bike thief.
I can hear St. Peter at the pearly gates now. "You go with that red fellow with the pitchfork over there. You abused good faith marketing. By the way, cashiers are in charge of the heating system." Please.