GS4 (Case study)
A poor child who looks completely starved is seen stealing by you from a shopkeeper. The shopkeeper is known to be a greedy and unkind person. What will you do?
Best answer
Rahul Kejriwal wrote the best answer for this question and got a score of 5/10 (if the best answer is an image, it cannot be uploaded here, hence scroll down to see those). The answer is being reproduced below for everyone’s convenience. Of course these answers can always be improved. (Best answer of a particular only involves those given on that day, later answers may not have been checked)
The involved actors or affected parties in this scenario include the child, the shopkeeper, me and the society at large.
The main ethical issues involved are –
1. The act of stealing
2. Rights of a child
3. Duty of a citizen and society towards the downtrodden
Scenario describes the possible helplessness of a hungry child to go for an act of stealing to satiate his/her hunger. Now, I can take different actions after witnessing this –
1. Do nothing – this step will be successful in helping the child get food. But would expose the child to an illegal and immoral act of stealing which could escalate over time if not checked and lead him to a life of crime in future. This affects the society at large too. Also, the shopkeeper, despite being of unsound character, would been wronged and it would be unfair to him. My conscience would be troubled too due to my evasion of duty as a citizen to act against unethical practices.
2. Report the child – this could bring a lot of trouble for the already helpless child. Shopkeeper’s rights would be protected but my conscience would not allow harming of a child. This would be a case of legality overriding ethics, which is not desirable in society.
3. Act proactively – I could stop the child in the act through a deft intervention where I would buy the product for him. I would also talk to the child later and enquire why was he forced to do such an act and will apprise him the dire consequences of such an action. I would try to locate his parents too and if needed take help of civil society to help the child.
This would benefit both the child and society due to the inculcation of values, at the same time protecting the rights of the shopkeeper and my conscience. Further, the shopkeeper too can be persuaded to be kinder, my example may serve as an effective communication for the attitudinal change.
As among the courses of action mentioned above, the last one satisfactorily tackles all the issues mentioned in the beginning, involving the act of stealing, rights and duties of various patties involved, I would take this course of action.
