The Eighth Commandment is, “You shall not steal”.  Stealing means taking for one’s own what belongs to another.  All stealing is a sin.

Forms of stealing

There are all manner of ways in which people steal, from burglary or house-breaking to stealing money from someone’s purse.  But besides that there are many other ways which some people like to think are not stealing at all.

So children, who have been told not to help themselves to things in the fridge or cupboard, will open the door when no one is looking and steal some cake or chocolate, not because they are hungry but because they are greedy.  There are those who pretend that stealing from someone’s fruit tree, or scrumping, is not stealing.  But it is.  I remember a pensioner who had an apple tree in his back garden.  It was a nice little tree which used to keep him supplied with fruit for most of the autumn.  One year, just before the tree was ready for picking, some boys climbed in, stripped the tree and then went off, leaving behind on the ground a number of apples out of which they had taken one bite and then thrown them away.  So the old man had no fruit that autumn.  Those boys had stolen his apples just as if they had taken them from his sitting room.

It is also stealing to borrow and not to give back, or to order goods from a shop and not pay the bill.  And if parents give children some money for the Church collection and they spend it on themselves, this is double theft.  It is stealing from God and also stealing from their parents.

If someone is given too much change in a shop, and keeps it, that is stealing; and it is stealing for a shopkeeper to give too little change on purpose.  One can also steal by finding.  For example, it would be stealing by finding if someone found your purse and kept it, instead of contacting you or, if your details were not in it, contacting the police station where you could claim it.

One can also steal from a train company by not paying the fare, or from a bus company by staying on the bus after the fare stage.  A woman buys a 60p ticket but gets off at the £1 fare stage.  She has stolen 40p because she has taken something for which she should have paid but didn’t.  She may like to think that it is not stealing, but if the ticket inspector gets on the bus, she doesn’t tell him that.  She tries to get off without getting caught.

It is also stealing to be idle at work.  For example, a man is paid £10 an hour.  But when the boss or foreman is out of the way, he does only half an hour’s work.  But he takes a full hour’s pay just the same.  He has done £5 worth of work and has taken £10 for it.  He has stolen £5.  Of course, if he did a full hour’s work and was paid only £5 instead of £10, he would look at it very differently.  So it is really stealing to get more than is right for oneself or to give less than is right to others.

All these things are dishonest, and they make dishonest people.  They turn people into thieves.

Being true and just

The Catechism explains the Eighth Commandment by saying we should avoid stealing and should be “true and just” in all our dealing. (1) True and just means honest and fair.  We should always be absolutely trustworthy, not only where money is concerned, but in everything else.  If we make a promise we should always keep it, however great a nuisance it may be – unless, of course, we are actually prevented by illness, which is another matter.  We should never let other people down, but be reliable and straightforward – nothing tricky or shifty (Psalm 15:4,2).

And we should also be fair in all things. We like to be treated fairly and we should treat others fairly, taking only what is right for ourselves and giving what is right to others.  In other words, we should treat everyone as we want them to treat us.

SUMMARY

1. Stealing means taking for one’s own what belongs to another.  All stealing is a sin.

2. The Eighth Commandment teaches us to be absolutely straightforward and fair and trustworthy in all we do and say, and to treat all others with the same strict honesty as we expect them to treat us.

Reference

Church of England (1662) The Book of Common Prayer.  A Catechism.  Available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/bcp/texts/catechism.html  (Accessed 20 August 2010) (Internet).