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Monday
Mar142011

* * Thinking about stealing 

Pedro Loza is my newest friend.  He’s from La Paz, Bolivia.  Not long after we met, he asked me a question that caused me to struggle for an answer.

I was selected by representatives of Rotary International a few months ago to lead a team of four young people on a GSE (group study exchange) trip to Bolivia.  We leave in two weeks.

Because this is an exchange, a team of Bolivians was chosen to come here.  They arrived 3 weeks ago and Pedro is the leader.  He stayed for several days as a guest at my house.  After several days here, I asked him what surprised him about our country and about Southwest Virginia.  He said he was surprised by all the things that everyone left outside all the time, things like lawn chairs, yard art, and potted plants.  “Aren’t you worried about them being stolen?”  He explained that in his nation, which is very poor, the people of means typically have walls around their yards to prevent things from being stolen.  “You have poor people here, too. Don’t they steal things?”

My first reaction was to think about the things we routinely leave outside.  We have some old, broken and patched plastic Adirondack lawn chairs. We have a few pots, awaiting the coming summer season’s flowers.  But who’d want to steal that stuff?  I said, “Most of this stuff outside is so cheap I don’t think even poor people want it.”

Then I began to reflect. 

A decade ago, my life was rocked with the discovery that the long-term bookkeeper at our company had been embezzling from us for years.  The aftermath was the most interminably stressful and unhappy period of my life.  The thief was a grandmotherly woman who I hired and worked next to for years.  Until her arrest, I liked her and never considered for an instant that she might be crooked.  After her arrest and months of agony, the act of thievery became increasingly repulsive to me.  I thought many times to myself that it would be impossible for any fair-minded person to wear a priceless piece of jewelry or show a fine painting in their home if they had stolen it. Most of us would feel guilt or remorse every time we saw it.  How could other people not feel this way?

Finally, I said to Pedro, “In my experience, it has been no more likely for a poor person to steal than a wealthy one.”  Bernard Madoff (What a great name for a thief: he “made-off” with the money.) is the most notorious thief in recent memory.  He was wealthy before his thievery and he victimized seemingly everybody, from old friends to charitable organizations.  He is what my grandfather would have called, “a real piece of work.”

Pedro pulled up his pant leg and showed me a cloth pouch tied to his calf.  It had a zipper closure. He used it to store his money and precious papers.  He was using it in my town, where bodily theft is unheard of. 

I was a victim of a serious crime because I was naïve and trusting, and never believed that someone I knew personally and always treated with kindness and respect would ever do anything as malevolent.  Still, my guard has dropped again and I’m more likely than not to trust each new person I meet.  How else could I allow Pedro or any other guest to stay in my home?

Our system of business and personal relationships throughout my culture is based upon trust.  Where would we be if it were gone?

Three days ago, Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. It’s something they have always been susceptible to.  Our Gulf Coast routinely gets hammered by hurricanes. My cousin’s son was attacked by thugs as he walked the streets of Washington, DC.  People learn to live – or sometimes die – with the threats around them.  I’d hate to have the constant threat of theft looming before me.  And yet I can never again be so naïve to the possibility if it.

 



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  • Response
    You made a number of nice points there. I did a search on the issue and found most people will agree with your blog.
  • Response
    Michael Abraham, author - Weekly Journal - * * Thinking about stealing

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