“A clever theft was praiseworthy among the Spartans; and it is equally so among Christians, provided it be on a sufficiently large scale.”
Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (1850)
***
Now that the World Snooker Championship has started on BBC TV, I’m reminded of a theft from my church in the early 1970s. The Youth Club had a brand-new, six-foot-six, table-top snooker table for two weeks before it was stolen – and in board daylight too. I reported the theft at the police station. “Can you describe the snooker table, sir?” a bored Desk Sergeant enquired. “Green, six pockets, six-foot-six by three-foot-three, brown wooden surround … And the balls have gone too.” “Can you describe the balls, sir?” “Twenty-one reds, one yellow, one green, one brown, one blue, one pink , one black and one white,” all of which he dutifully wrote down. “And two cues as well.” “Can you describe …” At which point I lost the will to live and decided I wouldn’t mention the snooker chalk and the racking-triangle.
We got the snooker table back, along with the balls, cues, etc, etc – due to a good piece of local intelligence, it has to be said, rather than the diligence of the local constabulary. But the theft was the talk of the parish for weeks. “How could someone steal a six-foot-six snooker table in broad daylight and now be seen?” kind of thing … It was a Cause Célèbre.
What is it about clever thefts that makes them noteworthy? I remember “The Great Train Robbery” of 1963, when £2.6 million was stolen from a Royal Mail Train, and I recall people saying how audacious the theft was, almost in admiration of the perpetrators. The later Brink’s-Mat and Hatton Garden heists have also elicited comments of awe and wonder. I worked in a factory once where things were stolen all the time, almost as if it was a rightful perk – a “one up for the workers” attitude.
But theft is theft, no matter how large the scale, clever the robbery or justifiable it appears. So let’s be careful of viewing a wrong through our lenses of admiration, wonder or justification. Theft, in any form, is never praiseworthy.
Both Spartans and Christians should know that well enough!
***
A prayer for today
Lord, forgive my mistakes; and forgive me for justifying the ones that I don’t believe matter that much. Help me to remember that everything matters to you. Amen.
***
An original reflection by © Tom Gordon
Tom Gordon's Hymns and Reflections 