Theft and Robbery

External goods can be lawfully owned by aperson. Man has a natural need for such things, and for their use,and thus he has a natural right to acquire dominion over them.

Since man has a natural need to procure, to dispense,and to use material goods, it is lawful for him to possess such goods as his own. But in the use of such goods, man must be willing to give or share, according to reason and justice, to a neighbor in need.

Theft is the secret and unlawful taking ofwhat belongs to another.

Robbery differs specifically from theft, for it is the open and forceful taking of another’s goods.

Theft is a sin directly contrary to the divinecommandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” Theft is opposed to justice directly, and also by the fact that it involvesguile or fraud.

Theft, in its kind or genus, is a grave sin,for it opposes commutative justice and also opposes charity whichis the spiritual life of the soul. For charity imposes the duty of loving one’s neighbor, and theft is injury to one’s neighbor. Yet the full and grave nature of theft as sin is not found in the taking of trifling things, unless, indeed, the thief intends serious injury by his stealing. Small thievingsare, in themselves, venial sins.

When a person is in extreme need of material things,and there is no way of emerging from his extremity but by taking what belongs to another, the surplus which another possesses becomes common property, and the taker is not guilty of theft. Thus a starving man, or one whose dependents are starving,may take, openly or secretly, the food that will save human life. This, of course, is on condition that the taker of the food has no other means of getting it, and that he does not leave the person from whom he takes the food in as desperate a situation as his own.

Robbery involves two offenses against both justice and charity, namely, the taking of goods unlawfully, and the inflicting of violence or coercion on the victim. Robbery is, therefore,always sinful. When public authority forcefully takes over property, either as lawful penalty, or for use in an emergency suchas war or public calamity, there is no robbery in the act.

It seems that robbery is a more grievous wrong than theft. It takes a man’s goods and adds injury or ignominy to his person. Thus, it is more noticeably oppressive to a man than theft with its sly guile or fraud.