Stealing vs. Borrowing

The definitions of stealing and borrowing are:

Stealing---taking another person's property without the intention of returning it.
Borrowing---taking and using something that does not belong to you with the intention of returning it.

It's a slippery slope, my friends. I maintain you can be guilty of both at the same time. Especially if it's in your own house.

Here's the story:

Butch lost his phone charger. He was certain one of the grandkids took it. I emailed Sandy---her girls said "no." In fact, they made the point that whenever Butch loses his charger, he blames them. The last time he was in Charlotte, he woke Mitchell early when he was trying to leave and asked where his charger was. Turns out, he actually took Mitchell's. Sandy figured that one of Mitchell's friends saw Butch's charger and "borrowed" it. Everyone wound up with a charger, so all was fine.

Well, this time it was the weekend of the wedding that his charger cord went missing. I didn't know that he hadn't found it until he left for Atlanta later that week. It was 11:15 p.m. when I went to put my phone on MY charger only to discover it was gone! He took my charger to Atlanta! To say I was not happy---is an understatement. I was majorly ticked! I had to go outside to my car---and it's cold here in Nashville---especially at night. I have a car charger and wasn't even sure I could make it work inside. Well, I happened to have a USB plug from a previous phone, so I was able to plug the car charger in to it. By the time he got home, I was over it, so he didn't get in trouble for borrowing my charger.

Then, last weekend when I was packing for Kentucky Lake to meet my sisters, I realized I couldn't take my charger and leave him high and dry. Turns out, it worked out fine because Jeanne has the same charger as I do. I'm pretty methodical about most everything in my life, so it's no surprise that I plug my phone in at bedtime to let it charge overnight. All was good.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was chatting on the phone with Sandy. I carried some things upstairs. As I passed by Mindy's room, I noticed that the plantation shutters were askew. I went in to adjust them---things like that drive me crazy. Lo and behold, sitting on Mindy's bed was Butch's phone charger. How did I know it was his? Because I did this to mine a couple years ago:

I forgot that I had also done it to his:

That made it easy to know it was his missing cord. There's no doubt.

So, we pieced together what happened. When Mindy was here for the wedding, she stole Butch's phone cord. It's clear she stole it because she never intended to put it back where it belonged. She doesn't put anything back where it belongs! In her mind, I'm sure she thinks she just borrowed it. True, she didn't take it out of the house. But it would have been lost for months had I not walked past her room---at least it would have been gone until our next house guests.

It's all about intention. And we all know what those roads are paved with!

Stolen or borrowed? It's a slippery slope, I tell you!!