If I was mad at someone and I snuck over to his house one night and poured cement mix down his gas tank, this would cause someone a big damage. He would have to then hire someone to fix this damage, or if he could fix it himself, it would take him several hours of work. The way I see this, this falls under “stealing”, but what if I went over to his house and toilet papered his trees? He would still have to hire someone to clean his yard or he would have to do it himself, so this would also fall under stealing.
Let me put the shoe on your foot. Lets say that you owned a camp ground or a beach resort and every night some teenagers would come by and have a huge drinking party. The excess litter forces you to hire a trash collector to come by and clean up for 2 hours every day, 6 days a week. Lets say that trash collector gets paid $25 a day. This would mean that these teenagers would be in a way, stealing from you $7800 every year (this does not include extra trash pick up fees).
So think twice before you throw that aluminum can or Styrofoam cup down on the ground. Remember, someone will sooner or later have to pick up behind you and this could be slowing down some company's productivity or eating into their net gains.
