COMMENT: Honest people doing dishonest things

So it's no surprise usually law-abiding citizens seem to think it's okay to occasionally pop a couple of avocados through as potatoes.

I'VE often wondered how much money self-service checkouts are losing.

For years we have debated if tasting a couple of grapes in store is stealing. Some of the most honest people I know will tell you grabbing a couple of grapes off a bunch is fine.

So it's no surprise usually law-abiding citizens seem to think it's okay to occasionally pop a couple of avocados through as potatoes.

I unintentionally stole nearly $100 groceries once. I put the lot through and then walked off without paying. When I realised, I returned red faced and told some of the staff. Two staff members admitted they discovered the checkout with the unpaid total and didn't know what to do so they deleted the transaction. We scanned every item again and I paid.

The supermarkets must be coming around to how flawed the self-service system is. Typically honest people are doing dishonest things, people are accidentally stealing and as we saw in this story: How 65c fried noodles helped a mum's sophisticated fraud, it's opened the door to new kinds of fraud.

Originally published as COMMENT: Honest people doing dishonest things