No way, my parents raised me better than that, with more respect for other people and their work, and, in the end, way too much respect for myself and my abilities. Why would I have needed to do that? I could have mowed another lawn, shoveled another driveway, got another paper route and that way what I had was mine because I earned it. Sometimes when I was young it seemed stupid, but as I grew up what I learned was that integrity was uniform. If a person couldn't be trusted with a nickle candy bar, then trusting that person with ten dollars was beyond stupid. And it sets patterns that continue. Kids who cheat at school never learn to really do the work, so later on, when they are in a situation where they can't cheat they lose because they also don't know where to find the inner reserves needed to do the work. That's why people who are always looking for the easy way never find it panning out because there really is no easy way.
The much bigger thing, which pretty much took me till middle age to really see play out is the same basic principal as Oprah's Law of Attraction. You think you're getting away with it, but people know. Deep in their heart, or by reading you, or by a very basic intuition. And the good ones avoid you and well, cheaters find cheaters, thieves find thieves, and people who lie tend to get lied to. A lot.
You know, the same way that the people who seem the most intolerant, and the least accepting are exactly the ones who complain that no one accepts them.
And, in the end, there is nothing cute or humorous about it. There is no moral difference between stealing a candy bar or a car, it's the same, only the value - but never the VALUES - change.
