Is replacing an item with equal value a sin

[DangItCarl]

Lets say, if someone’s wallet was laying on a counter. If there is a $10 bill in it, is it a sin to take that $10 bill and replace it with 2 $5 bills. Also, is it a sin to use a credit card and give the money back. Lets say that someone finds a wallet and makes a purchase of $5 on it and then puts in $5 of their own back in the wallet and puts it back where it is. Im not planning on doing this im just wondering if it is sinful or not, I hope you can help. Thanks, God bless

 

[Ardent_Fire]

I don’t see any grave sin, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable meddling with someone else’s things without their consent depending on how well you know the person or how they would feel about it, I don’t think it would be charitable and that could possibly be a sin. For example, you could use the card but what if their account was low on funds and it was just the right amount to put them into overdraft? Then the $5 in cash, though making up for the amount debited, doesn’t account for any potential fees or problems that overdraft can cause.

In some cases where the two $5 bills were exchanged for the $10 it might not really be sinful if it’s someone that you know well enough that you have reason to believe they would be OK with it, such as a spouse. I suppose if my husband for whatever reason absolutely needed a $10 bill and replaced it with two $5s and explained it to me later I wouldn’t care.

 

[runningdude]

Swapping the bills for exact change would not be an issue, particularly if you held onto the wallet for a significant time.

Using someone’s credit card without permission should NEVER be done. Even if you put extra cash in the wallet, the owner may never know of the charge, and be stuck with late fees or hurt credit. The bank may also cancel the charges on the lost card, and the merchant you used the lost credit card at may never get paid.

 

[po18guy]

That usually constitutes petty or 3rd degree theft under the criminal law. To wrongly assert control over the property of someone else, using it for any amount of time, deprives that person of the rightful use and possession of their private property. As well, using a credit card without authorization is a felony in all 50 states, as far as I know.

The catechism is pretty clear, as well:

Respect for the goods of others

2408 The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another’s property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing . . .) is to put at one’s disposal and use the property of others.191

2409 Even if it does not contradict the provisions of civil law, any form of unjustly taking and keeping the property of others is against the seventh commandment: thus, deliberate retention of goods lent or of objects lost; business fraud; paying unjust wages; forcing up prices by taking advantage of the ignorance or hardship of another.192

The following are also morally illicit: speculation in which one contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others; corruption in which one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law; appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise; work poorly done; tax evasion; forgery of checks and invoices; excessive expenses and waste. Willfully damaging private or public property is contrary to the moral law and requires reparation.

2412 In virtue of commutative justice, reparation for injustice committed requires the restitution of stolen goods to their owner:

 

[TheLittleLady]

Using someone else’s credit card is fraud. It is illegal.

Don’t mess with other people’s wallets.

 

[midori]

Isn’t that a bit convoluted?

You don’t mess with stuff that’s not yours, period. You can mess with it enough to repatriate it, but you don’t mess with it to the point where you actually MESS with it. Like spending cash that’s not yours, or swiping a card that’s not yours. It doesn’t matter if you replace the value— you just don’t do it, period.

If you’re in a public place, like a store or a restaurant, you take it to a responsible-looking person, like a manager, and say, “Hey, this was left behind.”

If something has a name on it-- like a credit card-- then that’s an instant way to track down the owner.

The last time we found a wallet, it was lying in the street. We flipped it open, found the driver’s license, saw that it belonged to a house a block away, rang the bell, no one answered, stuck it inside the screen door or in the mailbox or something, and got on with our walk.

Usually, though, it’s keys or cellphones that get left behind by accident.

I know a guy’s wife who got put in jail. She found a wallet that was left at the Dollar Store. It belonged to someone she knew. Her story was that she was taking it home, and would catch it up to them the next time she saw them… but the person whose wallet it was didn’t believe her intentions, pressed charges, and poof, instant jail. If she had (a) called the person who she knew to say, “Hey, I’m standing at the store with your wallet; you wanna come by and pick it up?” or (b) passed it on to the manager on duty, no jail.