My class is quite a strange class. With all the lacking in class chemistry and the craze in computer games, I’m proud to say that we are still doing quite well in terms of class MSG. However, are results all that important when we are lacking in moral values?

Our class has quite a few theft cases since last year. We thought that after the installation of not one but two cameras in our class, we could stop the thief from going about his activities. We were so wrong.

Theft cases are still going about in the class. From losing pens and pencils to losing wallets. At the moment, no laptops are stolen yet maybe because of it is quite bulky and there isn’t a lot of place to hide it when it is stolen. But I feel that it will happen sooner or later as most of my classmates leave their laptops on the table instead on putting them in their lockers as they find it very troublesome to do so.

Hwa Chong Institution is a very big campus and almost anyone can enter and leave without anyone even noticing. Our classrooms are not very secure even with the doors locked as if the thieves are determined to steal the laptops they can just break the glass windows of the classroom and climb in, sweeping all the laptops at one go. If they managed to do that, they would be rich overnight with thousand of dollars of laptops in their possession. If the thieves come from the general public and they so happens to wear a mask, our cameras will not be able to capture their faces and it would be very hard to track them down.

However, today I will not be talking about thieves from the general public but thieves from our class.

They have to be very stealthy and sneaky to be able to steal anything with so many people around the class, thus a laptop is out of question. However, wallets that are left lying around the classroom are quite easy targets for thieves. In the blink of an eye, it will be gone. Even with the cameras, it would be hard to capture as there might be a case whereby many people are standing up, blocking the view of the cameras.

Why then must they steal?

There are many answers to his question.

Firstly, these thieves find that their parents did not give them enough money for allowance and cannot buy sufficient food to fill their empty stomach after a long day in school. Thus, they have to resort to stealing to get more money to fill their stomach. The solution to this is that they should tell their parents that the allowance that they are given is not enough to fill their stomach. I am very sure that their parents would be understanding and increase their allowance. If their parents simply have not enough money to spare their children, I guess that the student would just have to eat less.

Secondly, these thieves receive enough allowance from their parents to fill their stomach. However, they want more money to buy other stuffs that they want but their parents refused to buy it for them, labeling it as a waste of money. Thus, they resort to stealing to get more money aside form the allowance they get. The stuff that they want to buy includes a new phone, a new electronic device, etc. Their act of stealing just so they could buy the things that they want is a very selfish way of thinking. If you steal wallets from others, those people would not have money to buy food for themselves. They would also be scolded very badly by their parents for losing so much money and they might be grounded or have their allowance reduced. Why must you cause so much trouble for others just for the benefits of yourself?

Thirdly, I feel that these thieves steal from others just so that they can teach the victim a lesson to be more responsible for their own things. They are pissed that the victim is so careless, always misplacing his things and therefore, he steals to teach him a lesson to learn from this incident and not be so careless ever again. Another reason is that these thieves steal to help his friend “safe-keep” so as to prevent other thieves from stealing it. At the end of the day, he will return the stolen item to the victim and advised him not to be so careless in future.

Lastly, I feel that these thieves just steal for the fun of it. They feel that it is very thrilling to steal from others and as the time goes by, they get hooked and addicted to stealing and cannot live without stealing. If these problem is not solve early, most probably when he grows up he will be a “full-time” thief and in the end will be caught by the police and put behind bars, ruining his future, if he has any future to begin with.

I feel that all this theft cases would not have happen if students are more responsible for his items and put them in the lockers so as to prevent them from TEMPTING any thief to steal them. Some students may come from a well-off family and feel that they do not need to be responsible for their items as they can always buy a new one if it ever gets stolen. This is a very selfish way of thinking as their parents worked very hard to earn money not to just let him waste it like that. If he has so much money, he can make it more worthwhile by donating it to charity organization to help the less fortunate.

The less temptation the thieves get, the fewer items to get stolen and the less the name of the class would get affected.