Topics Ethics

Question Suppose I have a friend who keeps a stack $100 bills under her bed. For some strange reason she does not ever wish to spend the money; she just plans on letting it sit there. What's more surprising is the fact that she never counts it. So she would never know some went missing. Am I justified in taking a bit of the cash to, say, buy her flowers? She would be pleased to receive the gift, I'm sure; at the same time she would not have the slightest idea that the money use to pay for it was her own. So as far as she can tell she only benefits, meaning I'd be doing here favor. Yet, isn't it obviously cruel of me to even consider duping her like that? What is going on here?

Accepted:
June 13, 2006

Comments

Initially, the case that you are considering strikes me as an instanceof a moral principle to which I am generally committed, which might beput crudely, as “no harm, no foul.” If no one is harmed by, say,dancing, then moral prohibitions against it are unjustifiable. If noone would be harmed by your buying your friend flowers with her ownmoney, then it follows from this principle that there are no groundsfor moral complaint against your doing so.

However, I am not yet convinced that your actions would cause no harm in this situation. I wouldn’t say that it is “obviouslycruel” for you to dupe her. I would reserve the word “cruel” for peoplewho are completely indifferent to, or even take pleasure in, thesuffering of others, and your stealing her money in order to buy herflowers doesn’t reveal such a character trait. Nonetheless, it is notso clear to me that you do not harm your friend by buying her flowerswith money that you steal from her and by pretending that the moneythat you spent was yours. The institution of private property– ofgiving individuals a large degree of controlover certain items– offers clear benefits to owners (which in some circumstances might be outweighed by harm done to non-owners). Control over certain types ofobjects enhances the control that we have over our lives, and manypeople have held that such control is both intrinsically andinstrumentally valuable for human beings. Even if your friend is notnow planning to do anything with her money, her possessing this moneygives her a certain amount of control over her life that she would nototherwise have. To take this control away from her is to harm her,whether or not she ever becomes aware of this harm. Further, thepleasure that she feels from the belief that you spent some of your ownvery limited, hard-earned money in order to buy her flowers might leadher to think better of you than you in fact deserve. Thismisinformation might lead her to make decisions about her futurerelationship with you that she would not have made had she known thatthe money you spent was in fact hers. Your deceit would thus furthererode the control that your friend has over her life, and thus harm her even more.