I'm amazed how many people are thieves. I don't mean that in a judgemental way. It's just so different to how I love my life. I'm somewhat taken aback by the comments about what people have stolen.
There are many reasons and starting points in these stories.
My favorite stealing stories are the ones that include items that would go to trash anyway/otherwise. I dislike the idea of stuff going to trash that needed materials and services to be created (no doubt creating some pollution while a it)...it'd just be such a waste.
Those situations feel more legitimate/reasonable to take something while passing.
It's kind of cultural. See some gloves from work at a coworker's house? Meh. Coworker wraps their body with welding cables and smuggles it out? High fives all around.
I work for a bank (I know I know, fuck me right?).
They give us new laptops every couple years and only once in 10 years have they requested the old one back. I'm certainly not going out of my way to return their equipment if they can't be bothered to at least ask.
So now I have 3 laptops that aren't mine and don't get used, I'll format and sell them when I can be bothered and I certainly won't feel bad about doing it. They can definitely afford it, and they're not exactly a philanthropic venture so I don't really care if they can't. If I cost the bank another £1000 or so then I call that a win personally.
That's barely thievery though, I'm talking about going into the office and stealing someone else's laptop, or taking money out of the safe/cash register.
Your example doesn't attribute losses for the company because I doubt they budget the residual value or the old laptop. Therefore you're causing no effect on the victim
We are both refering to "thievery" but you're describing one extreme scenario and I'm describing the other extreme scenario. semantics.
The reason I say what I say, is because somebody stole my car and the term "he could afford it" came up more than once. Meanwhile I was left without transport for a while
A cop out or a coping mechanism. Employers steal so much from employees: time, wages, sense of purpose, sometimes even health. And most of us don't have good ways to stop them (because socienty). So stealing a bit back might actually help feeling less hopeless.