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I was at home for Christmas one year and watched as one of the kids in a family I used to babysit years before, but who was probably in high school that year, stole a cow from another neighbor's creche scene in their front yard.
The weird thing about it was that I saw it happen while sitting in my parents' dining room with my dad and brothers. My dad mentioned casually during the theft that these neighbors had been complaining that someone was stealing a piece of the creche each day for the last few days. We all watched as this kid went tearing across our yard, right past our dining room window, heading for his house. He had the cow under his arm. Then we went on with the day as if nothing happened. Nobody even mentioned what they has seen when my mother told us with sadness later that the neighbors took their creche down, because they were tired with having pieces stolen.
I sometimes look back at that and ponder the whole situation. The easy thing was to do nothing, which is what I did. I could have dropped a dime on the kid, but I wasn't sure which of two boys had done it. I also didn't know either family very well any longer, so to get involved would have taken a lot of effort. "Hey remember me? Yeah, well I saw you stealing something. Or maybe it was your brother. Return it or I'll tell your parents." The boy was playing a prank, not like he was mugging people. And the creche was really a tacky one anyway, so I wouldn't miss it. But it was a theft, and I did witness it. Mostly, I thought it was my dad's duty to speak up, because he lived there.
Anyway, I've heard that when someone needs help in a crowded area, they often don't get the help they need because everyone there assumes someone else will do it. But if someone needs help when only a single person is nearby, that person will always help. I think it's true for dropping dimes on kids too.
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