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A dead comment asked if stealing 100 dollars if fine if you give it back. So I'll chip in that for basic theft, one of the core elements is intent to permanently deprive the original owner. So if someone steals money, changes their mind, and then returns it, that's still theft. And taking money to spend, with a promise of returning money later, still counts as theft. But if the intent all along was to return it the next day, stored safely the entire time, that's not theft. Obviously intent is hard to prove, so don't try to pull that off without a lot of evidence and/or a very understanding target. |
Legally, this isn't even remotely true.
If you deprive someone of their legal possessions without permission, even with intent to return it later, you are guilty of theft.
There is no loophole that allows you to temporarily steal things as long as you intend to return them.
Intent only comes into play if the person had no intention of depriving the other person. An example would be if you accidentally pick up someone else's jacket because you thought it was yours.