Thief or no thief that is the question!

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To be a thief, you need to take something that doesn't belong to you right? Does that count if you take something that belongs to someone else WITHOUT YOU REALIZING IT? When exactly is someone classified as a thief?  

The other day I went to the store to buy some dog food. For some or other reason the owner of the shop stacks the dog food in a little secluded space way at the back of the shop. The space is about forty square meters big, but in the middle of this space, there are heaps and heaps of dog food stacked in little mountains.  

To find the brand my dogs eat, I had to scan the place because there are about sixty different types of dog food. There is not much space to walk, and hardly enough space for a shopping trolley, but I was alone, and there was NO way that I was going to carry a bag of 25 kilogram dog food, not even for 5 meters.  

I usually put my handbag inside the trolley so I don't have to struggle with that as well when I take things of shelves. My dogs are very fussy, and they only eat certain dog food, and when I finally located their brand, guess where it was stacked? 

Yip, you guessed right! Wayyyyyyyy in the furthest corner of the little secluded space I found it.  

I re-scanned the space, before I maneuvered my way in. I worked out a quick escape route that would make it easy for me to get out. 

I decided on the following: 

If I walked straight, past the heaps of dog food stacked in the middle of the space, then turned right, walk straight, pick up the food, put it in the trolley and then turn right again up to the corner, and then turn right again to get back to where I started. 

It looked easy enough.  

The first part was easy. I walked straight, and struggled to turn right, but I made it.  I walked straight, up to where the food was stacked. I was about to pick up the food when I noticed something on the floor. It was a small red and black ball, and it definitely did not belong there. So good Samaritan that I am, I picked up the ball to drop it off in the toy section just next to the dog food. Some kid must have played with it and it unknowingly rolled in there. I put the ball next to my handbag and grabbed the VERY heavy bag of dog food and put it inside the trolley. 

I turned right and straight in front of me was a crate of some kind that blocked my way. I tried to move it because it was blocking my way, but to no avail. I had NO other choice but to turn the trolley around. Hah....have you ever tried doing something in such a small space and it is just not possible? So I made yet another plan, creative person that I am. 

I tried to do a three point turn. 

A three point-turn is a method of turning a vehicle (or shopping cart) round in a narrow space by moving forwards, backwards, and forwards again in a sequence of arcs.   

Finally after crashing into literally EVERYTHING in the little secluded area I was finally on my way out.  I walked straight to the counter to pay and off I went to go and feed my dogs. 

That evening my husband was searching for my car keys, and I unpacked my neat handbag to take it out. Guess what I found in my handbag????

Yip, you're right again. The ball that I picked up to put back in the toy section!!!

It was too late to take it back to the store because the store had closed already, and how would it look if I now take back the ball to the store and explain to them what happened? Are they going to believe me or not?

I am between two fires. I can now keep the ball and live with the guilt, or I could take it back and explain to the store-owner that I unknowingly stole his ball. 

If this was the first time something like this had happened I would make peace with it, but when I was about three years old, I went to the store with my mother, and after spending what felt like hours in various shops, I had a doll clutched under my arm when we finally got back to the car. I still have the doll today, I even named her Bernadette. 

So perhaps this is not such a coincidence....perhaps I am born to steal?

Now to get the route plans for the next cash in transit vehicle coming this way.....