led to thieve through
necessity. This necessity diminishes or entirely removes sin, as we
shall show further on (A. 7). Hence the text continues: "For he
stealeth to fill his hungry soul." Secondly, theft is stated not to
be a great fault in comparison with the guilt of adultery, which is
punished with death. Hence the text goes on to say of the thief that
"if he be taken, he shall restore sevenfold . . . but he that is an
adulterer . . . shall destroy his own soul."

Reply Obj. 2: The punishments of this life are medicinal rather than
retributive. For retribution is reserved to the Divine judgment which
is pronounced against sinners "according to truth" (Rom. 2:2).
Wherefore, according to the judgment of the present life the death
punishment is inflicted, not for every mortal sin, but only for such
as inflict an irreparable harm, or again for such as contain some
horrible deformity. Hence according to the present judgment the pain
of death is not inflicted for theft which does not inflict an
irreparable harm, except when it is aggravated by some grave
circumstance, as in the case of sacrilege which is the theft of a
sacred thing, of peculation, which is theft of common property, as
Augustine states (Tract. 1, Super Joan.), and of kidnaping which is
stealing a man, for which the pain of death is inflicted (Ex. 21:16).

Reply Obj. 3: Reason accounts as nothing that which is little: so
that a man does not consider himself injured in very little matters:
and the person who takes such things can presume that this is not
against the will of the owner. And if a person take such like very
little things, he may be proportionately excused from mortal sin. Yet
if his intention is to rob and injure his neighbor, there may be a
mortal sin even in these very little things, even as there may be
through consent in a mere thought.
_______________________

SEVENTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 66, Art. 7]

Whether It Is Lawful to Steal Through Stress of Need?

Objection 1: It would seem unlawful to steal through stress of need.
For penance is not imposed except on one who has sinned. Now it is
stated (Extra, De furtis, Cap. Si quis): "If anyone, through stress
of hunger or nakedness, steal food, clothing or beast, he shall do
penance for three weeks." Therefore it is not lawful to steal through
stress of need.

Obj. 2: Further, the Philosopher says (Ethic. ii, 6) that "there are
some actions whose very name implies wickedness," and among t