[THE-U-]

What this man did was wrong.

However, I will offer another perspective. In two or three days all these plants will die with no one to care for them. He probably didn't want to spend the time to find out where such flower pots can be bought from and so he helped himself to a few. No harm, no foul.

I am sure the folks who were paid to place to flower pots there also overcharged the government, perhaps twice their fair price along with any under the table payments. Although this fellow gets driven in a Carnival, he decided that he needed to have a slice of the graft pie. That's all.

Could the government come up with a policy of either auctioning away these plants after the event or donate them to whoever wants them for free? Now, that would be an improvement.

I don't think we need to insult a whole nation of people for the lapse in judgement of one person. That is never right and it also happens all over the world. If we all individually decide to do what is right, including not cutting in line and not leaning on other people's backpacks when standing in line at the airport and at other places, that will be a good start. Sheesh, people - give some personal space. The flight is not going to leave without you.

People cut in line left and right at our airports that I dread the thought of traveling in economy class, which unfortunately I have to many times. It has gotten slightly better these days though and I do try to call out offenders. Haven't been physically attacked yet, but it might happen one of these days (I hope not).

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by Thilak29

In a parallel universe - A good citizen from Gurgaon, parked his car, and donated his house plants for the beautification of the city ahead of the G20 meet. Truly inspirational!

https://twitter.com/GabbbarSingh/sta...238468096?s=20

look at video carefully. It is same guy but video is played in reverse giving the impression that he is putting pots there. The nearby bikes, cars are all in reverse gear

[nishsingh]

Spare a thought for the poor Kia Carnival, which has now been impounded for being an accessory to theft
Well, if anything, the silver lining here is that the Kia Carnival amply demonstrated how much boot space it has, and the versatility it offers.

Originally Posted by GhostGrid

PS: Then we wonder why this mug is still chained even when Britishers were long gone

If it is any consolation, we had our journalists trying hard to repay the British debt a few years back -
https://www.outlookindia.com/website...ing-off/306637

[inwester]

...And over there in the Understanding Economics thread we're fighting whether it'll take India 5 years or 50 to develop.

[ICE_Swift]

Originally Posted by masterChief007

He was upset that he will get a fine of 600/- for the missing items whereas he will be earning around 1500/- for his duties ! Due to this he had started pestering others for all items collection 2-3 hrs before destination. This disease is quite widespread in India.

The Poor Fellow.A lot of people who steal Don't realise this but sometimes at the lower end Hotels that are not owned by Tatas or Oberois the cost of stolen material is often taken from the salary of the Room/Floor Incharge.These are people who have migrated from their Villages to the city in the hopes of finding a better paying job and often have entire families relying on their Income so even a loss of 500 rs means a lot to them.

When I was a kid ,I used to read a lot of Books and used to naively believe that India would be a superpower whenever it was shown on News Channels etc.Now everything that I see just proves that India will always be a developing country.

The Couple in Bali,The Kia Carnival Owner are just some of the things you have seen but if you were to see the amount of Corruption inside Government Departments you'd start agreeing with me.Not to mention the fact that Honest Officers Actually suffer greatly for their honesty (eg Ashok Khemka- India's most transferred Officer).

Sorry for the Pessimistic view,but I've given up hope about India a long time ago.

[Sedate]

This is much like the wealthy Ravan taking away Sita. The hoarding mentality is there in every human being. Looking at how beautiful the flowers are, it is very tempting to resist.

[100Kmphormore]

This isn't even the man's car. Belongs to a senior agricultural Scientist at CCU agricultural university, confirming government employ. If the fence is eating the crop, what sort of things can we expect?

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by THE-U-

However, I will offer another perspective. In two or three days all these plants will die with no one to care for them. He probably didn't want to spend the time to find out where such flower pots can be bought from and so he helped himself to a few. No harm, no foul.

I am sure the folks who were paid to place to flower pots there also overcharged the government, perhaps twice their fair price along with any under the table payments. Could the government come up with a policy of either auctioning away these plants after the event or donate them to whoever wants them for free?

I am sorry to say that this perspective is wrong on many levels. As a society we cant be alright with thievery. When something is not yours, dont take it, no exceptions, no other perspectives can be valid. There is no such thing as a free lunch. It doesnt matter when the plants would die, the people who placed it there will handle it. We dont know if the Govt. had a temporary contract to a nursery for beautification. In that case it is a direct impact on that vendor. All of these have value - the pot, the dirt - & the whole enhillada. There is no grey area here, if its not yours, don't take it. All of the speculation about corruption, does put this thief in the right, one tiny bit!

[svsantosh]

I have to show this my 75yr dad (not that he does this )

Sometime in early 80s my dad was a mid level executive in a leading automobile ancillary company in Hosur TN. Back then there were hardly any decent hotels around Hosur (Ecity was not even on the map) and all senior executive and board of directors meet used to be conducted in Windsor Manor (the famous one with a bridge over airport road, Bangalore).

The official company car was a trusted Ambassador and it used to putter across Cathedral road (hint) and Hosur carrying the top boss and Anjeneyalu' the trusted driver.

That day the eyes of the top boss fell on the best flower pot your money could buy and all it took was a John Wick eye contact and the Amby reversed into the car park spot, the boot opened up and gobbled up 2 pots.

The plants Safely reached Hosur Plant and that sense of achievement well exceeded the board room numbers that day I bet.

I totally re-lived my dad laughing and sharing that incident (what if? The big boss was caught) and all the other uncles i grew admist in dad's factory brought up that story in many a time family get togethers for years to come.

God....!!! With Mobile phones and CCTV around us everywhere it's silly to have this habit still.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

One off the reasons why we will forever be a " Developing" nation.

Yup, I went to many "developed nations" and was surprised to find out that they do not have any jails since people have stopped committing crimes! We will always remain a developing nation unless everybody stops crimes right now

On a more serious note, I will go against the tide. I wonder whats this severe outrage about. People much richer than this gentlemen have been caught stealing billions. I mean there have been CEOs etc., who own private jets, and yet have swindled billions from people.

I guess its similar to that old adage "Steal 100$ and its your problem, Steal 100 million $ and its the banks".
We as a society consider petty theft to be a far more serious and punshable matter (Send them to Saudi arabia.. boil the entire family and feed to pigs blah blah) than big theft - Manipulated stocks and did billion dollar fraud, aah, but economy ... GDP .. India shining....(insert incoherent rant about complex economic matters from people who can't even do their kids 5th grade math homework)

[Zooster]

Really not that shocked.. Well this happens more often than most people would like to admit. My wife's family run Restaurant / Food truck in Manori Mumbai. Its a Farm setting and people have to Drive in to park in the property and there is a lot of Flora and Fauna that my in-laws have bought from all over India and collected. Over the years they have had to actually hide some of the good flowering plants, because besides plants being stolen on a regular basis and people picking flowers and fruits without asking. Someone actually stole my daughters kitten poor things were heart broken for months as the one of the 3 they picked up was the friendlies from the lot. My Father in law always says I don't know why people just don't ask we are more than happy to give cuttings for people to take and grow or a few fruits to take home and try. He actually takes pride in it. I guess the mentality will never change look outside the International Airport in Mumbai cars that I have only seen in magazines lined up by the owners or drivers on the highway cos they don't want to pay for parking in the airport but they will sit in the car for an hour with the AC on.

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

On a more serious note, I will go against the tide. I wonder whats this severe outrage about. People much richer than this gentlemen have been caught stealing billions. I mean there have been CEOs etc., who own private jets, and yet have swindled billions from people.

Human psychology does not scale proportionally. The outrage is not regulated with analytics. When we see a picture of a crying child that just became an orphan we feel really bad. When we hear of a million people killed in a civil war potentially rendering a million orphans, we cant scale it, its called psychic numbing.
https://www.vox.com/explainers/2017/...-slovic-apathy

On the same lines we dont scale the outrage for theft of Rs1000 Vs Rs1000Cr. In theory we should be asking for action proportionally, but we just cant. There is no constant value to outrage, that we can scale

[Black_Star]

Originally Posted by THE-U-

However, I will offer another perspective. In two or three days all these plants will die with no one to care for them. He probably didn't want to spend the time to find out where such flower pots can be bought from and so he helped himself to a few. No harm, no foul.

I am sure the folks who were paid to place to flower pots there also overcharged the government, perhaps twice their fair price along with any under the table payments. Although this fellow gets driven in a Carnival, he decided that he needed to have a slice of the graft pie. That's all.

Could the government come up with a policy of either auctioning away these plants after the event or donate them to whoever wants them for free? Now, that would be an improvement.

Yes those plants will be dead, one or two weeks tops, you know why? Because they are winter seasonal plants and with them flowering they will be dead soon. Sorry to break it to you but govt has maintenance guys in place to make sure they water them until the event is over.

And how do I know this? It's because I run a nursery and supply plants like this whenever the need arises. And let me tell you the govt bleeds me dry because of the shit rates they give, and remember the lowest bidder wins not the highest.

[SinghBHP]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Utterly pathetic!

I have experienced worse, unfortunately, when it comes to people stealing flowers and plants. Here in the Netherlands it happens on graveyards, would you believe.

Both my parents and sister have died, many many years ago. And even 20-30 years ago, a bunch of flowers on their (family) grave might not last the day. People visiting their departed loved ones, simply steal flower, but also plants and ornaments on the grave.

Jeroen

Given a chance people are same everywhere.

Off-Topic....
In 2015 and 2016 I was in NL(Amsterdam) during the King's day. The festivities are AWESOME however when I saw the way some of the people were creating ruckus, littering all round the Central, peeing on roads , couple of people peeing in canal etc. It was a surprise for me and my friends. However we felt closer to India :-)

[aargee]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

On a more serious note, I will go against the tide. I wonder whats this severe outrage about

The reason society tends to blame itself when a petty thief is caught, while more serious criminals are blamed individually, has to do with the perceived affordability of the stolen goods. When a person who appears to have the means to afford an item takes it without paying for it is viewed as theft or shoplifting. Such as a person stealing flower pots worth of say even Rs 1000 in a car worth of 21 Lakhs even though he could easily afford to pay for it.

On the other hand, if a person who appears to be financially struggling is caught shoplifting an item is viewed with more sympathy or understanding, and the broader societal issues that may have led them to steal may be considered; like a homeless person stealing food from a store, their action may be seen as more forgivable than if a wealthy person steals a luxury item.

In short, society tends to hold individuals accountable for theft when they are believed to be able to afford what they are stealing, while societal factors may be considered more when the thief appears to be stealing out of necessity.