Is borrowing as good as stealing?

JAKARTA (JP): During a service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Marshall plan in The Hague, Mr. Gustav Sedec, a young man who had won a trip to the White House, was invited to give a speech about his experiences. In the speech, he confessed that he was so impressed by this very distinguished mansion, that he was determined to take something as a souvenir. He decided then to "borrow" a matchbox.

But President Clinton did not use such euphemism in his speech, he frankly said that Mr. Sedec was forgiven for "stealing" the matchbox.

We usually think of stealing, when it is done in the middle of the night or during the day when the people who live in a house are away and unknown people enter to take valuable things like the television, sound equipment, money and jewelry.

Stealing becomes serious when it is done on a large scale and intentionally for profit. Supermarkets in Indonesia constantly complain of shoplifting. Most supermarkets make it obligatory for visitors to have their bags checked. Some wholesale shops allow their clients to bring in only their purse and handphone. But it seems shoplifters are smarter. They wear baggy clothes so they can hide the merchandise. Others do not enter the store through the entrance but cooperating with staff to have good transported to an undetected place.

There are many variations between serious stealing and "borrowing". There are people who steal from places they have visited. Hotels have blankets and towels stolen by customers. I know a person and all his cutlery is from the different airlines he has flown. "I steal at least one teaspoon, but if I have the opportunity, I may take more." he said.

This kind of "borrowing" is not considered serious, but nowadays many hotels are giving guests the opportunity to obtain these goods more honorably -- by selling towels, blankets, bathrobes, etc. with their logo on them. At Cikini market we can buy all the crockery from the domestic airlines, and even the blankets, so we don't have to pinch them. But where these vendors get their merchandise from is not clear. What is surprising is that even the plastic spoons, forks and plates, which the airlines use, are also for sale.

But what do you do to prevent your friends from stealing from your house? I do not mean they would walk away with your valuable paintings or antiques. What I mean is things like the gentle art of borrowing books.

I had asked a friend how I could protect myself from people who do not return books they have borrowed. He gave me the depressing answer that I should never lend any books, not even to good friends. "Look", he said, "you don't have a card system or detectors that could protect you. And even the largest and most sophisticated libraries which have them, cannot prevent people from not returning books."

I remember my friend Ria, who has probably a few thousand books and people think she not will miss a book if it is not returned. But Ria always remembers.

One day we were at a reception, when I spotted an old friend. I asked Ria to come along to congratulate him on his promotion to a very important position. Ria refused and I noticed that she tried to avoid him all evening.

"What is wrong Ria?" I asked her, "you used to be such good friends. Did he borrow your books and not return them?"

"Even worse," she said, "he borrowed my books and returned the photocopies. Can you imagine somebody going out with your husband and returning a clone of him?"

-- Myra Sidharta