Revelations by local supermarkets that they are being fleeced of tens of thousands of dollars a week through the self-serve aisle is both alarming and unsettling. Just as unsettling is the fact many of these latent thieves don’t view it as stealing.

In a flimsy act of self-justification, they view it as fighting back against faceless corporations.

It may be true the supermarket duopoly has hurt “mum and dad” businesses and played hardball with our farmers over pricing; it may be true supermarkets are saving billions a year in wages by having self-serve checkouts – but that in itself does not absolve thieves of responsibility.

A study in the UK found one in five people steal from self-serve checkouts, many of them not fitting the criminal stereotype.

More than half surveyed claimed they started taking goods because they couldn’t get an item to scan.

Others said the main reason they stole was because they were less likely to get caught.

And that’s where the “honesty box” system reveals the darker side of human nature.

We like to think we are essentially honest, but where temptation exists, and the likelihood of being caught is low, dishonesty lurks.

If the moral dilemma doesn’t get you, then there’s one other very good reason not to steal from supermarkets.

Ultimately, light-fingered shoppers aren’t stealing from giant supermarket chains, they’re stealing from other shoppers.

In Australia, retail experts say that pilfering eats away between 1 and 3 per cent of the turnover of the grocery duopoly.

Supermarkets aren’t charities and don’t simply cop the loss – they pass it back onto us through increased prices.

So the next time the temptation to “skip the scanner” strikes, remember what the true costs of your actions are.