Bagel Burglars and White Collar Crime

I came across this interesting article in the New York Time Magazine from a few weeks back. The article is about a former economist, now full-time bagel-meister, who has habitually gathered statistics on the bagel theft ratio of different offices where he distributes his bagels.

You see his bagel distribution is based on the honor system. He puts his bagels and donuts in the lunch areas of various businesses, along with a wooden box with a slot for the money to pay for the bagels customers take. If they don't pay, but take his bagels, they are stealing, and he loses money. He does, however, make a decent living, so there are enough honorable people out there to keep his business going.

Of course different offices have different theft ratios, and those ratios seem to correlate to different professions. Needless to say, Paul F. the bagel economist, no longer tries to distribute his bagels to law offices....dontcha just luv stereotypes that turn out to be true.

What is interesting about Paul F.'s discovery, is that it is a small window into the world of white collar crime, something that is apparently agonizingly difficult to gather statistics about, because so little of it is ever punished.

For the full article, click here.