On morality and brownies

[charliesmum]

So, say you put 65 cents in the candy machine to get a brownie, and the brownie gets stuck on the little metal circle thingy, so you smack the machine, and then not only does your brownie fall, but you get another brownie gratis. Is that, in the strictest sense of the word, stealing?

After all, if one went into a store and walked out with a brownie under one's hat, that would be stealing pure and simple, whereas when one simply says 'hurrah! free brownie!' and trots back to one's desk to eat it, it doesn't seem exactly like stealing. After all, it isn't one's fault that the brownie thingy dropped two brownies for the price of one, and it's not like one jimmied the machine open or anything. It was a happy accident.

However, In the Noble Eightfold path of Buddhism, one of the steps is "Right Action" that states unwholsome actions lead to unsound states of mind. This means one should abstain from things like harming sentient beings to not take a life and to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty

So, in a strictly moral sense, one should make a good faith effort to pay for the brownie, right?

Now, you may point out that it's pretty hard to return a brownie to a vending machine. However, one could put a note on the machine saying that one owes the vending guy 65 cents when he comes to fill the machine. That would be the right thing to do.

Meanwhile...ummm...ill-gotten brownie...