And not only that, when people confess their crimes to others, I think
they do it to receive what they take as implicit approval.

That if no one objects, they say to themselves, "No one objected.
They either think what I'm doing is all right, or they are as
dishonest as I am. That is, I'm as good as everyone else there is."

I've rarely had anyone confess a crime to me, and the one person I
think has I was a little confused and not sure what he was saying,
plus I owe him so many favors, and his business is doing badly now,
and he has borrowed money to make his business grow, money I hope he
can repay, so I couldn't bring myself to say anything critical so I
said nothing. Not because I want more favors, but I don't want to
ruin our friendship.

OTOH, with a jerk at a party, even then in truth, I would likely be
less in your face, like this:

"Aren't you telling me you are stealing from the gas company? I hope
you don't mind when people steal from you." Asking him instead of
tellng him. Hoping instead of assuming, which I think also sounds
less agreessive on my part.


On Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:38:43 -0400, mm
wrote:

On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:09:07 -0400, "Existential Angst"
wrote:

"jeff_wisnia" wrote in message
...
mm wrote:
On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:40:03 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:


I was at a party last night and a neighbor who works for a commercial
HVAC company explained his method of ripping off the gas company.

He says that gas is a commodity and therefore is typically cheaper in
the summer than in the winter. In the summer he "over-reads" his meter
by 35 - 40 therms on average, paying for the extra therms at the
cheaper price.


"It's so rare I meet someone who admits right out to being a thief. I
assume you don't object when public officials steal or others steal
from you or your family."

I'm pretty slow on the uptake, and I might not have thought to say
this, but I think I'll remember next time. Especially worth saying if
others are there when he said what he did.

I hear your visceral reaction to theft, but..... he's stealing from
thieves!!

I don't think so. But even if so, he's still stealing and admitting
it in public. Do you think he limits himeslf to stealing from those
you think are thieves?