Eight-year-old Jimmy comes home from school with a note from his teacher that says, “Jimmy stole a pencil from the student sitting next to him.” Jimmy’s father is furious. He goes to great lengths to lecture Jimmy and let him know how upset and disappointed he is, and he grounds the boy for two weeks. “And just wait until your mother comes home!” he tells the boy ominously. Finally he concludes, “Anyway, Jimmy, if you needed a pencil, why didn’t you just say something? Why didn’t you simply ask? You know very well that I can bring you dozens of pencils from work.”
If we
smirk at this joke, it’s because we recognize the complexity of human
dishonesty that is inherent to all of us. We realize that a boy stealing a
pencil from a classmate is definitely grounds for punishment, but we are
willing to take many pencils from work without a second thought.
