We all steal. A little thievery is normal. Sometimes it’s just a matter of expediency. I got tired of waiting in line to pay for a nut and bolt at Home Depot, so I just walked out. It was only twenty-five cents but it was theft nevertheless. Am I going to lose sleep over it, no! Do the shareholders of Home Depot care? Surely not! But on a cumulative basis, if every person walking through a Home Depot store on any given day walked out with twenty-five cents worth of product, eventually someone would notice. Internal accounting controls would bring the shrinkage to light, and controls would be implemented to prevent customers like me from walking out with twenty-five cents worth of hardware without paying. Eventually, given enough time and the relative size of the loss, it will get noticed.
That’s the part that thieves have a hard time with. They start with small amounts, which aren’t generally noticed. Then they graduate to larger amounts, which may still go undetected. But the worst part is their piggish attitude and total lack of respect that is their undoing. They just figure they’ll never get caught, or if they do get caught then they should steal enough to justify the inevitable.
I knew a lawyer, Gordon (not his real name) who employed a legal secretary. Norma (not her real name) was your typical matronly spinster who lived alone with her cats. She was an efficient employee who had been with Gordon forever. She was as much a part of his office as the furniture. Gordon had a busy practice arranging mortgages and lending money to clients. Norma looked after the post-dated cheques from mortgagors and payments to the mortgages.
Occasionally I had to attend to business at Gordon’s office and over the years I noticed that Norma showed little respect for Gordon. When I would bring this up his reply was always the same, “Oh, that’s just Norma,” he would say.
One day I read that Gordon was charged with misappropriating mortgage funds. Apparently Norma knew of this and was a willing accomplice. Her remuneration reflected that, and over time she grew comfortable with the fact that she could not be replaced and behaved any way she chose. As the inevitability of discovery loomed closer, Norma got more nervous and so did her anger toward Gordon. Anger for putting her in a situation she couldn’t control, anger for putting her livelihood at risk, anger for making thievery part of her job and a burning frustration at allowing the situation to get so out of control.
Gordon served three months for his crime but the loss to his clients was just shy of a million dollars. I don’t know whatever happened to Norma.
The lesson to be learned is that human nature is predictable. We are all fallible. We all make mistakes. The difference is the size of our errors. Some of us make catastrophic errors; most of us make little errors. We can justify and rationalize the little errors because no one sees and no one cares. It is our decision to steer clear of the catastrophic errors that separate the fundamentally good people from the rest of the pack.
How can you tell when someone is stealing? Watch them. Notice their attitude. Is there an abnormal level of animosity? If they’re falling outside of the range of normal behaviour, chances are it’s worth following up. Don’t wait to be taken advantage of. Confront the individual, address the behaviour, reconcile discrepancies and employ simple controls that will alert you to inappropriate activities. The business you save may be your own!
