Who Robs A Food Bank?
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reports:
A local nonprofit is in dire need of help after thieves broke into its food pantry last weekend and walked away with office equipment and cleared out its shelves.
Larry Kapchinsky, the co-founder of KidCare International, estimates this has set back the pantry about $20,000. Now he’s asking the community to help them feed needy families this holiday season.
“A whole year of preparing for this season got wiped out in one night,” he said … Kapchinsky said he was in disbelief when the volunteer called to tell him the news. “Who steals from a food bank? We would have given them help if they just asked,” he said.
Kapchinsky says the suspects went into the freezer and took almost all the items, leaving unwanted items in the freezer. Those items went to waste because the freezer door stayed open.
“What they didn’t steal, they trashed,” he said.
Some people would rather resort to desperate measures, including stealing from a food bank, rather than ask for the help they need.
But thanksgiving begins with a willingness to receive. Don’t rob God of the gratitude He is due because you don’t know how to receive what has been freely given to you. And understand that even more valuable than all of the things the world has to offer is the possession of a grateful heart. Gratitude makes us rich. Possessing the whole world, without the proper gratitude toward God, leaves us poor.
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Finger and Thumb Deception
A pastor and collector of SATURDAY EVENING POST paraphernalia shares the following illustration of the subtleties of violating the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal":
… You may remember the SATURDAY EVENING POST covers that dealt with this particular commandment. The picture I’m referring to shows a woman buying a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving. The bird is lying on the scales and the butcher is standing in back of the counter…apron pulled tight over his fat stomach…pencil tucked behind his ear. The customer, a lady looking to be about 60 years young, stands watching the weighing in of the big bird. In the picture, both the lady and the butcher have pleased looks on their faces…as if each knew a secret joke.
Now, to see the reason for their knowing smiles you have to look closely at their hands. For, the butcher is pushing DOWN on the scales with a big fat thumb and the woman is pushing UP on the other side with a dainty forefinger. Neither is aware of what the other was doing so both apparently think they are getting the best of the other….STEALING without the other even knowing. I don’t remember the caption but I suppose it could be something like: “The case of the butcher’s THUMB and the lady’s FOREFINGER” But, whatever it’s title, it does serve to illustrate our attitude toward the 8th commandment.
*Click here to see a picture of the Leslie Thrasher classic "Tipping the Scales," which adorned the cover of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, Oct 3, 1936.
He continues:
You see, both the butcher and the lady would resent being called thieves. The lady would never rob a bank or steal a car and if the butcher had a customer to give him a bad check, he would call the police and report a crime. But neither saw anything wrong with a little “finger or thumb deception” that would make a few cents for one or save a few cents for the other. And we are much like these two. We agree that this is a good commandment but we don’t think it really applies to us. After all we are not THIEVES!
Does it Really Pay to Break the Rules
She was paid $1 Million per year to research and teach on the topics of "honesty and ethical behavior," but no longer. As of May 28, 2025, Harvard University researcher Francesca Gino has lost her tenure.
Why? Mik Olson of Not the Bee reports:
"The honesty professor has been officially canned for dishonesty while conducting studies on [wait for it!] ... dishonesty. ... So now we have an ethics expert embroiled in a legal battle over whether she cooked the academic books — you really can't make this stuff up. ... Anyways, word on the street is that Harvard is looking for a new ethics professor! Only requirement: Be Ethical."
Publisher Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine tweeted it this way:
Harvard behavioral scientist Francesca Gino, who was paid $1 million a year to study honesty and ethical behavior, was accused of manipulating observations to better support her conclusions. Now lost tenure. Do they still teach irony at Harvard?
The accusations ranged from data falsification to plagiarized passages in some of her high-profile publications.
Ironically (errr, unironically), Professor Gino actually produced a video short several years ago entitled "Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life."
Yep, you really CAN'T make this stuff up!
With instructional videos on the benefits of breaking the rules, is it any wonder this "ethics" and "honesy" professor would find herself on the wrong side of, well, ethics and hoesty?
Hypocrisy is the sworn enemy of the frutiful Christian life. We love to put our best face forward, virtue signalling our ethical and honest Christian walk and lifestyle, all while self-justifying our bending of the rules, a little here, a little there, until finally, our sins are found out. "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known" (Luke 12:2, ESV).
In the end, it's hard to live a lie. Honesty is ALWAYS the best policy.
"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matthew 7:5, ESV).
"You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’" (Matthew 15:7-9, ESV).
"Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people" (2 Timothy 3:5, ESV).