64-year-old man arrested for stealing ¥2,000 from offertory box at shrine

ok

Send baldy thief to Hell!

arrest the troublemaker!

Better him have it than those shrines, as if they need more money.

So some shrines have security cameras monitoring the saisen box. Interesting, I've never noticed one before.

arrest the troublemaker!

"Police said Taira, who was arrested on Sunday..."

Wait until they figure out he never paid income tax.

Now he becomes really really expensive for us. Only society shooting multiple times on own goal, but the problems behind still unsolved.

Reminds me of that video of 5 or so police officers ambushing an old guy who'd been stealing shrine money, including a bonus shot of a police officer slipping. It was comedy gold.

Bad karma heading his way from very vengeful Gods.

I'm friends with the kannushi of the shrine next to my house and noticed someone trying to break into their offertory box, so I went to their house, and they said, "There's little money in there. It's the box itself that is valuable."

Stealing is stealing.

The amount is a separate problem.

This seems to be happening a lot recently. I wander what they use the money for. If they need the money for food, they should be forgiven. But if they use it to play Pachinko, throw them in jail.

Police are questioning Taira about similar thefts that have occurred at other shrines in the area.

Yeah, blame this guy for the other crimes, too. We all know there's only one thief in Japan.

2,000 yen? I wonder how long it took for him to get 2,000 coins out of the box!

2,000 yen? I wonder how long it took for him to get 2,000 coins out of the box!

If it was four 500Y coins, not long.

If it was two 1000Y bills, even less.

Help the poor guy to survive instead of abusing him.

I will put the 2000yen back there if you give him food and shelter.

A "DO NOT STEAL" sign translates in Japan to "Thank you for always not taking money out of the offertory box."

Religion in Japan is a falsehood - it's merely another Commercialization attempt to Commoditize a Long standing historical ideology to the point of undermining it... Hello Kitty Meets Buddha!. This typifies that, instead of making a huge public fuss, why was there not a quiet (Japanese style "quiet"), handling of this situation - was the person really in need, or just a drunken Yakuza who sought to discredit his clan ? If he was in need, then why the big fuss ? Though shalt not steal from your wealthy fat monk ?

I've heard of desperate people in Japan (often poor old men) stealing just to get caught, because getting arrested and jailed is an efficient way to get food and shelter.

Robert Cikki

But to steal just 2,000 yen? How could that even be worth the trouble? 

There are several different videos of him pilfering from the box. Regular visitor! We don´t know how long he has been doing it, we also do not know how many other shrines he "visited". It is a good assumption it all added up to a nice profit over time.

mmwkdw

Religion in Japan is a falsehood - it's merely another Commercialization attempt to Commoditize a Long standing historical ideology to the point of undermining it... Hello Kitty Meets Buddha!.

Strongly disagree! Afaic, religion in Japan is a shared tradition, offering cohesion in society, without being taken too seriously. Which is exactly the way it should be. No fanatical religionists going on holy war here (well, apart from Aum, but that was not mainstream).

What a clever thief bowing for 2,000 yen. I guess he felt the offering was also for the taking.

How desperate this, possibly homeless, 64 year old man must have been to take money from a shrine. Yeah, I know "All Humans who appear in news stories are scumbags" and should be described in words to that effect or condemned to the...maybe in this case, just the fifth circle of ... How hungry was the man? Do we have any information on the state of this man's reality at the time? What is this shrine's policy on helping those poorly equipped to live in our current pathological Human society? When faced with a fellow Human in extremis, is pilfering less than USD20 a crime or an obvious time to reflect on charity? And, what kind of mind could use the word "profit" in relation to a story like this? Just askin'...

William Bjornso

How desperate this, possibly homeless,

Did you see the vieo? He looks well-groomed and healthy, and since the cops when to his house, he is hardly homeless.

@Zaphod

We don't know this man situation.

Just stop bashing him.

Didn't your mom told you to be extra nice to people in need? It's called compassion.