As we look today at the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal,” here are a couple of stories to remind us that crime does not pay.

A London taxi driver found an ingenious way to keep his cab clean. He would wrap up the leftovers from his lunch together with any other garbage he found in the cab in a newspaper each day and leave it in the backseat of his cab. By the end of the day, it was always gone. Someone stole it hoping for a treasure but ended up with a big surprise instead. -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).

Here is a true story from the dim-witted criminals department: A man walked into a convenience store, put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register. In his hurry to get away the man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving his $20 bill on the counter. So how much did he steal from the drawer? Fifteen bucks. Go figure. -- "Strange World," Campus Life, Vol. 56, no. 2.