Ripon College Days

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Opinion

Dear Auntie,

I see bicycles in the bike racks outside my dorm that never seem to get used. Would it be okay to borrow them if I leave them back in the racks at the end of the day?

-Anonymous


Dear Anonymous,

The fundamental issues that underlie your question are the difference between borrowing and stealing, and the difference between intentions and the acts that result from them. Any use of items or ideas not belonging to you without the permission of the owner is stealing, and is regarded under most circumstances to be an unethical act. This generalization is especially true when applied to your question.

The bike you want to use is not necessary to your survival and so using it cannot be considered an act of self-preservation. However, the circumstances are not so clear when you introduce the idea of intention to return.

Consider this question instead: My roommate left $50 on her desk when she went away for the weekend. I need the money for a party I'm going to and I will pay her back by Sunday. Can I take her money?

The intention is to make the situation as if the borrowing never occurred. However, the true difference between borrowing and stealing is owner consent. If someone takes $50 from her roommate and intends to pay it back, the situation's outcome depends entirely upon the reliability of that person to make good on her intentions. This presents a significant risk to the borrower.

The owner of the item in question has to be able to weigh the outcomes that could result, no matter the intention, and decide whether the risk of allowing someone to use her money (or anything else) is small enough that it is affordable. Without this consideration on the part of the owner, the borrower is taking advantage of the lender's situation.

So, if you know that you intend to return the bicycle at the end of the day and do it, the owner might never be the wiser. However, the owner may require the use of his or her property earlier than that, you may forget to return the bike, the bike may break, or any number of complications could arise that prevent you from meeting your intention.

There is only one good resolution to the situation and hundreds of bad ones, and the owner of the goods in question needs to be aware of the risk and give consent in order to make the action one of borrowing and not of stealing.

In the case of external circumstances preventing you from making good on your intentions, don't think that because your intentions were good that the action must be good as well. An unintentional murder does not make the act of murder less wrong, it just means that the situation may warrant different analysis.

One of the benefits of ownership is the right and ability to use the items one owns whenever one desires. If you borrow the bicycle, the owner of the bicycle cannot take advantage of the rights he or she has by virtue of owning the bike. You have gained all the benefits of ownership while depriving the owners of those same rights, but without having done anything in return, even if it that something is simply providing the courtesy of asking permission.

Your question is also a bit trickier than the money question because you are not borrowing from a specific person and you are not borrowing from someone you know. This may lead you to disregard the owner's risks as inapplicable to the situation.

However, simply because you do not know who is going to be hurt by the consequences of your actions does not mean that you do not need to consider them. The fact that you think the bicycles are not used is also questionable, unless you are monitoring the bike racks all the time, you are unaware of the bicycles' use.

If you need or want to borrow a bicycle, it may be best to find out who some of the owners of these bikes are, and ask them. Then you can have the owner's consent, and they will know where their bicycles are when they are not in the racks.

Ethically Yours,
Auntie Ethica

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