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As we entered the ICU coming from the hospital's cafeteria, my sister in-law asked me to hold her purse for a moment. As I grabbed it, I almost let it fall because of the unexpected weight. I was about to ask "What in the world is in your purse" when she gave me a "Shut up" look.

We were in a Private Hospital in Mexico City because her baby daughter had to be in the incubator until she would gain enough weight to survive outside in the world.

We left the hospital half an hour later and while driving back to the house my sister in-law asked me to get her a cigarette from her purse. When I opened the purse I saw what would probably be a full set for 6 people of silverware.

"Why are you carrying silverware" naive of me asked.

"Oh, I got it from the hospital" she said casually.

This is a woman who was born in Beverly Hills, her parents are W-E-A-L-T-H-Y with capital letters, my brother, her husband is wealthy and between the two of them own four residences: Beverly Hills, Mexico City, Cuernavaca, and Acapulco, there is no way she needs to steal silverware from a hospital!

"Why would you do something like that?" I questioned in astonishment.

"Do yoy have any idea how much it costs to have the baby in there? We've spent already thousands of dollars in that hospital, this is my way of getting some back.

People steal for many reasons, for hunger, for envy of others having what they don't have and being unable to even dream of having such things some day, they just snap one day and go the easy route to obtain whatever there is they want. Others steal, like my sister-in-law, just to get even with others for an "Unfair" situation, like the hospital bill.

During my times as a musician in a Rock Band, the band I was playing with got an invitation to play in the several jails in the Mexico City area. I'll never forget one of the guys who helped us unload the instruments from the truck. After the concert, the guy sat with my husband and I and my husband asked him the reason why he was in jail.

"Well, you do remember the robbery to the Anthropology Museum two years ago, yes?"

"The Jewlery pieces found in a Pre-hispanic tomb?" My husband asked, "Was that you?"

He nodded.

"But what would you gain from stealing such jewelry, I mean is not like you can wear it somewhere or easily sell it, those were HOT TAMALE items!" It was my turn to ask.

"Oh, I kept them underneath the mattress of my bed in my grandmother's house, I would go every day, take them out, put them on the bed, and just look at them, they were simply magnificent!"

"Were you an art collector of some sort?"

"No, I was, am an electronic engineer, and when the jewels were placed in the museum, the news said they were under the most sophisticated surveillance system, nobody could steal them, and so I decided to prove them wrong"

Whatever the reasons or the excuses, stealing is an illness, like alcoholism, like "shopp=holism," and thieves cannot control themselves, they just do it because they have to "obey" an inside and sudden urge to do so.

Learn more about this author, Brenda Lachman.
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