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“You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15)
1. Introduction: a commandment more relevant than we think
When we hear the Seventh Commandment — “You shall not steal”, many people immediately think: “This doesn’t apply to me, I’m not a thief.” However, this view is far too superficial and dangerous for the spiritual life.
The Tradition of the Church teaches that this commandment is not limited to violent or obvious theft, but encompasses every form of injustice against another person’s goods, whether material, professional, intellectual, economic, or social. In a society where fraud is normalized, deception is disguised as “cleverness,” and exploitation is justified as a “business model,” this commandment directly challenges our daily conscience.
The Seventh Commandment protects:
- The natural right to private property
- Justice in exchanges
- Honesty in work
- Social responsibility
- The universal destination of goods, without falling into ideological distortions
2. Theological and moral foundation
Private property is not a human whim, but a right recognized by natural law, ordered toward personal, familial, and social good. To steal is not merely to “take something,” but to break justice, harm one’s neighbor, and sin against charity.
📖 “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather labor, doing honest work with his own hands” (Ephesians 4:28)
Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that injustice regarding temporal goods is a grave sin when it seriously harms one’s neighbor, especially when there is abuse of power, deliberate deception, or significant damage.
3. Sins against the Seventh Commandment
Extensive and meticulous list for examination of conscience
Below is a detailed list of concrete sins, many of them common yet rarely confessed, organized by areas of life.
A. Direct theft and misappropriation
- Stealing money, objects, or material goods.
- Taking “small things” thinking they do not matter.
- Taking material from the workplace (money, tools, products, office supplies).
- Keeping lost items without attempting to return them.
- Keeping money received by mistake.
- Using borrowed goods as if they were one’s own.
- Failing to return what was borrowed.
- Illegally retaining goods belonging to others.
- Stealing paid time (pretending to work, unjustified absences).
B. Fraud, deception, and scams
- Lying to obtain financial benefit.
- Defrauding individuals or companies.
- Selling defective products while hiding their flaws.
- Cheating in weight, quantity, or quality.
- Unjustly inflating prices by taking advantage of another’s need.
- Signing contracts with no intention of fulfilling them.
- Exploiting legal loopholes to commit injustice.
- Using insider or privileged information to enrich oneself unjustly.
C. Sins related to work
As an employee:
- Working carelessly, lazily, or irresponsibly.
- Receiving a salary without properly fulfilling one’s duties.
- Pretending to be sick in order to avoid work.
- Causing losses through laziness or serious negligence.
- Disobeying just rules established by the employer.
- Sabotaging one’s own work or that of others.
- Regularly using work hours for personal matters.
As an employer or manager:
- Paying unjust or insufficient wages.
- Delaying salary payments without just cause.
- Exploiting workers.
- Imposing undignified working conditions.
- Unjust dismissals.
- Failing to respect rest periods, vacations, or basic rights.
- Treating workers as objects rather than as persons.
📖 “The wages of the laborers must not be withheld” (cf. James 5:4)
D. Fiscal sins and offenses against the common good
- Evading just taxes.
- Falsifying tax declarations.
- Working “off the books.”
- Receiving public aid without entitlement.
- Improper use of subsidies or social benefits.
- Defrauding social security systems.
- Justifying tax fraud as something “normal.”
- Refusing to contribute to the common good when able to do so.
E. Damage to the property of others
- Deliberately damaging another person’s property.
- Failing to repair damage caused by one’s own fault.
- Acts of vandalism.
- Negligent use of rented or borrowed goods.
- Refusing to take responsibility for damage caused.
F. Sins against justice in commerce and consumption
- Purchasing stolen goods knowingly.
- Supporting clearly unjust businesses.
- Consuming in a reckless and selfish manner.
- Going into debt without real intention to repay.
- Taking advantage of a seller’s mistakes.
- Abusive speculation.
- Promoting or sustaining unjust economic systems when one has the power to prevent them.
G. Sins against intellectual property
- Downloading pirated content.
- Sharing copyrighted material illegally.
- Copying others’ work and presenting it as one’s own.
- Academic or professional plagiarism.
- Illegal use of software.
- Counterfeiting brands or products.
H. Usury and financial sins
- Lending money with excessive interest.
- Taking advantage of another’s financial desperation.
- Intentionally placing others in debt.
- Financially manipulating vulnerable persons.
- Gambling or investing irresponsibly, placing one’s family at risk.
I. Sins of omission
- Failing to return stolen goods when able to do so.
- Failing to repair a known injustice.
- Remaining silent in the face of grave injustice when one has a moral duty to act.
- Failing to make restitution after a valid confession.
- Ignoring the serious needs of one’s neighbor despite having sufficient means.
4. Restitution: the forgotten key of the Seventh Commandment
An essential and often neglected point:
👉 Confessing the sin is not enough.
👉 It is morally obligatory to restore what was stolen or repair the damage, whenever possible.
Without restitution, there is no complete repentance, and absolution itself may be compromised.
5. A final call to conversion
The Seventh Commandment does not seek to accuse, but to free the heart from disordered attachment to material goods. Christ does not condemn wealth, but He does condemn an unjust heart.
Living this commandment faithfully:
- Purifies the conscience
- Strengthens justice
- Humanizes the economy
- Bears Christian witness in a corrupted world
💬 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21)
