Steal This Idea: Why Judaism Says No to Microlooting
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Stealing from corporations is trending. Influencers call it justice. Judaism calls it a threat to civilization.
Small-scale theft has a new name — "microlooting" — and some influencers call it a public good. That's the position New York Times Opinion Cultural Editor Nadja Spiegelman took recently in a conversation posted on the paper's website. "I'm proposing a new term: Microlooting," she declared. "People are taking small things from big corporations and they're feeling justified."
“I support it,” declared journalist Jia Tolentino. “I do also,” agreed popular influencer Hasan Piker. Stealing was posited as a way to protest large corporations and government policy. “I think that stealing from a big box store (is) neither very significant as a moral wrong, nor is it significant…as a protest or direct action,” Tolentino explained, before admitting: “I did steal from Whole Foods on several occasions.”
Around the world, people are turning to theft and justifying it.
Celebrating theft isn’t new. Activist Abbie Hoffman’s 1971 book Steal This Book advocated living outside of society’s strictures. A half century later, writer Vicky Osterweil won plaudits and fame with her 2020 book In Defense of Looting, which positions theft as a moral good.
Other influencers are advocating stealing in order to generate clicks. An uncontrollable rush of Tik Toks teaching viewers how to steal cars - often called the “Kia Challenge” - resulted in thousands of car thefts, with Kia and Hyundai models targeted the most. The National Highway Safety Board estimates that at least 14 car crashes and eight deaths have been caused by youths stealing and joyriding cars after watching influencers advocate stealing the cars.
Around the world, people are turning to theft and justifying it. One 2025 survey found that 27% of American consumers admitted to stealing items in stores, up from 15% in 2023. Many of the people who admitted stealing justified their behavior by saying that rising costs were unfair. Stealing was a reasonable response to high prices, they claimed.
In Britain, shoplifting has reached a 50-year high. Only 35% of young people in Britain aged 18-24 see shoplifting as a “very” or “fairly” serious crime. In the US, many respondents explain that high prices justify theft: 17% believe it is justified for people to steal clothes if they find it too expensive to buy them. 29% believe stealing toiletries is acceptable if the prices are too high, and a whopping 39% of Britons report feeling it is acceptable for parents to shoplift items for their baby.
These statistics, and the rise in social media influencers advocating theft, point to a fraying social contract. When ordinary people feel that wealthy individuals and companies are gaming the system, they wonder why they must play by the rules. (The recent New York Times conversation in favor of stealing was titled “The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?”) This mindset reflects a growing nihilism: a belief that the system is broken beyond repair. Stealing is a way to register your despair and gain some free goods while you’re at it.
One of the most eloquent commentaries on theft was given 2,000 years ago by Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai (Talmud Bava Kamma 79b). Asked why the Talmud in some cases treats thieves who steal in secret harsher than it does brazen robbers who do their stealing in broad daylight, Rabbi Yochanan answered: “The robber fears neither God nor people, as he is not afraid to rob in public. The thief does not fear God but he does fear other people, which demonstrates that he is more concerned about humans than God.” Stealing betrays the inherent Godliness that is inside each one of us.
Thievery is corrosive, he explained, because it isolates us, cutting us off from the divine side of our nature, the very part of us that we need in order to work and improve the world.
The Torah describes man being created betzelem Elokim: “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:26-7). Each of us contains a divine spark. Being created in God’s image means we each have inherent worth and are capable of imitating God by living a moral life. Stealing draws us away from this positive, constructive Godly nature, obscuring our ability to rise to moral greatness.
Contrary to the influencers who argue otherwise, stealing goods harms many people.
The Torah instructs: “When you sell anything to your fellow or buy anything from another person’s hand, do not cheat one another” (Leviticus 25:14). The Talmud relates that the first thing we will be asked in the World to Come is “Did you conduct business faithfully?” (Talmud Shabbos 31a) The way we conduct ourselves in business and other practical realms shapes us either into people who reach our moral potential or, God forbid, into people who come up short.
Contrary to the influencers who argue otherwise, stealing goods harms many people. When they boast that they steal from “only” large companies, they forget the myriad managers, sales staff, and other employees who will be blamed and sanctioned for allowing theft during their shifts. They ignore its impact on the social contract. And ultimately, thievery harms the thief most of all, by making him cynical about the world, selfishly harm others, and choosing to separate from the best versions of themselves.
In the generation before the flood, the Torah describes the world becoming filled with corruption (the Hebrew word used is chamas). Jewish thinkers interpret the word chamas in this context to mean rampant petty theft. People would help themselves to very small amounts of other people’s property, like taking a grape or olive out of a merchant’s barrel. In other words, micro-looting.
When the culture says take, Judaism says give. That's the most radical act of all.
Taken together, these trivial actions eroded trust and destroyed the moral fabric of the community, corrupting society so thoroughly it could no longer be reformed. Creating a climate in which there are no boundaries and no respect for property is a recipe for breaking down social bonds and spurring despair.
Judaism’s prohibitions against theft exist alongside robust rules for helping other people. Jewish farmers living in the Land of Israel are commanded to leave some crops in the fields for poor people to eat; Jews donate between 10% and 20% of their incomes to tzedakah. Jews are called on to help widows and orphans, to visit the sick, and to take care of our fellow human beings in general. This tradition of giving might be the best answer to today’s calls to destigmatize and engage in petty theft.
When faced with rising inequality, high prices, and a host of other social ills, Judaism offers a different response: not theft, but action. Not despair, but the resolve to work on making the world a better place. To treat others with the same sensitivity, respect, and honesty with which we’d like to be treated. When the culture says take, Judaism says give. That's the most radical act of all.
