“The Electronics Thief” A Moral Dilemma for the Shabbos Table
By Rabbi Yitzi Weiner
This week’s Torah portion discusses a case where someone stole money from a convert and wanted to make amends for his theft (See Bamidbar 5,6 and Rashi there). The following moral dilemma deals with a thief who was forced to make amends for his crime.
Daniel owned a consumer electronics store in Tel Aviv. Unfortunately the store was plagued with a string of thefts. So far, Daniel lost nearly $20,000 worth of inventory because of the thefts. In response, Daniel installed a new system of security cameras all across the store, and hired a guard to watch the security monitors.
One day, the security guard quickly called Daniel into the monitor room. On the screen, Daniel saw one of his employees filling his backpack with tablet computers and cameras. Daniel and the guard quickly rushed to the scene and apprehended the thief.
“We caught you red handed”, Daniel declared. The employee became extremely agitated. “Please don’t call the police. I really can’t have this in my record. Please, let me go. Keep the merchandise, fire me. You will never see me again”. Daniel realized that he had tremendous leverage in this situation. Daniel said, “You are the one who has been stealing my merchandise for the past few months. You stole more than $20,000 worth of merchandise. If you return the $20,000 then I won’t call the police”. The thief replied, “I swear, I was not the one responsible for the past thefts. This is my first time. The only reason why I had the gall to attempt to steal now was because I figured it would go unnoticed in the whole series of recent thefts”.
Daniel didn’t believe the employee. “I don’t believe you. If you give me $20,000 for my lost merchandise then I will let you go without pressing charges. But if you don’t, I am going to the police.
Seeing that he had no choice, the employee agreed. “I didn’t steal in the past but I agree to give you the money. I don’t want to go to jail.
True to his word, the employee, over time, paid Daniel $20,000.
Several weeks later Daniel discussed this story with his wife, Esther.
“How could you have asked him for $20,000″? “That was extortion”, Esther argued. “You don’t have proof that he stole the other merchandise”. “What you mean I don’t have proof, I caught him red handed”, Daniel responded.
“Yes, but you don’t know for sure that he was behind all of the other thefts. I’m not sure it is legal or moral for you to keep all the money. You certainly have the right to call the police, but not to demand so much money from this guy”.
What do you think? Did Daniel have the right to demand $20,000 from this employee?
On one hand it is likely that this employee was responsible for the past theft, though not certain. In addition, the employee was simply paying for Daniel to forgo his right to press charges. One the other hand, perhaps Daniel was demanding an exorbitant mount of money from a person who never owed that much.
What do you think the Jewish perspective is on this case? Did Daniel do the right thing?
(See Chashukei Chemed Yoma page 405)
Answer to last week’s moral dilemma
This story is discussed in Veharev Na Volume Two Hebrew Edition page 320.
Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstien answered that they were allowed to leave the Torah Scrolls as they are. This was because they were not causing the disgrace to the Torah scrolls in an active way, (Shev Ve’al Taseh) and they were doing it for the sake of preventing other Torah Scrolls from being disgraced. They were doing it for the sake of respecting the Torah.
In addition, it is possible that these hoodlums might hurt or kill other Jews in the future, so it was important to apprehend them and keep fellow Jews safe. It was a case of Safek Pikuach Nefesh, a possibility of a risk to life.
Nonetheless, even though they can leave the Torah scrolls on the ground, they should internally be pained and saddened by the disgrace to the Torah scrolls.
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