Monday, June 18, 2007

Frugal or Wrong?

Everyone bends the rules, right? Taking the cashier's pen from the grocery store or nicking a handful of candy from the receptionist's dish don't seem to bad. But are they?

Wisebread explores the topic further in the post "Frugal or Just Plain Wrong."

You know what I love? Getting something for nothing. Oh, it's rare. It's also sort of greedy and raises all kinds of ethical questions. How far would YOU go to save, or make, a dollar or two?

Here are some examples of 'something for nothing' that fall into a morally gray area. I'm not endorsing, advocating, recommending, encouraging, or promoting any of these, but I'm curious as to how our readers feel about them. Like taking an extra piece of candy from the porch bowl in Halloween, everyone probably has a different perception of what constitutes right or wrong.

Some of the scenarios include sneaking candy into a movie, keeping incorrect change, and taking office supplies for home use. There are 20 items total and loads of comments, confessions and condemnations.

The post made me pause. I've been very guilty of some of these crimes. And I've justified my way out of some of them. (Isn't a bigger crime that the movie theater forces you to buy the same Nerds rope for $3 that I can get at Festival Foods 3 for $1? I could have gotten nine of them at Festival.) Others I can't imagine doing. (Just set-up your own cable. It's less of a hassle.)

What about you? Do you have a line that you wouldn't cross?

2 comments:

Stacy said...

Hmm, interesting. I wouldn't keep incorrect change or sneak into a movie, but I do sneak food into movies all the time. As long as they charge that much for candy, I'll sneak my snacks in. That's what big purses are for.

Anonymous said...

I don't cross any line that I would be embarassed to tell my kids about. Edix