A South Korean appeals court acquitted a security guard who had been prosecuted for eating snacks worth less than a dollar from a workplace refrigerator. The court concluded he lacked intent to steal because he had been told he was free to eat the snacks stored there, plus over thirty colleagues admitted to doing the same. The initial conviction threatened his ability to find a new job, and labor groups criticized the case as disproportionate punishment.
Business Takeaway: The lessons here about crime and punishment are of the biblical variety, and the lessons for employers a cautionary tale. See: Dan Ariely’s book on the subject—The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty(the level of acceptable cheating and stealing is a highly individualized metric) or relative to AI(students who cheated in class, and then wrote apologies using A.I.).