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Is stealing always wrong ?

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Not always.
It depends on the context.
Stealing the stockpiled weapons of a neo-nazi terrorist group and anonymously arranging to have them handed them over to the police or military for safe decommissioning- probably not wrong.
Similar thing for stealing the illegal narcotics stock of a cross county organised crime organisation and destroying it so that it could not be used to directly harm anyone or fund the operations of a serious criminal enterprise.

In the first situation the sensible thing to do would just be to tell the police straight away. You could get yourself into trouble by acting without the involvement of the police. Isn’t that vigilantism?

And in the second situation, it’s even more important that you tell the police about that. The police will certainly want that stuff as evidence as it could have forensic value. Also by taking it yourself, you could be interfering with an undercover operation that they are leading.

Reply 21

the bear

stealing a cipher book from a U boat is acceptable.

Reply 22

gtty123

Original post by RichPiana

I did this once.

Spoiler

That's... quite unfortunate.

Reply 23

londonmyst

Original post by j25_8

Depends on the context of the specific scenario and personal circumstances of the individual.
Including whether they are adults and the content of advice from law enforcement agencies.
Vigilanteism is law enforcement activity undertaken without any legal authority by a self-appointed group of individuals and generally involves the act & intention of imposing unlawful punishment upon those considered to be criminal culprits without any trial.

Reply 24

Napp

Stealing someones answer to this is decidedly bad..

On this though, no. However, entirely subject depedent. Is it wrong to steal from your friend because they have something and you just want it? Yes. A poor family to feed or clothe themselves? In general, no. But it rather depends who from, if they steal from a large shop then not really as they can afford that and its the peoples right to be both fed and clothed. If, however, they steal from an equally hard to do person then it remains morally wrong in my book. Then again, theres no real answer to this as its so subject dependent.

Reply 25

Pythian

Original post by samiii_00

You are in a medicine interview and you are asked this question. What will ur answer be ? (make sure ur answer is appropriate)

You could become a lawyer.

Theft is defined as the appropriation of property belonging to another ...

You could dispute whether the property ever belonged to the nominal assignor. Did they ever have a valid possessory title to some good?