I never use the very small bottles of shampoo but I still like to take

I never use the very small bottles of shampoo, but I still like to take them. It’s a grey line: no-one says they are free, yet it’s taken for granted I also like the small pots of jam in hotels. Mike Gayle – Author and former agony uncle I’ve got too much of a guilty conscience for stealing.The nearest I come is helping myself to free stuff from hotels I am addicted to it now. The rapping I gave my own knuckles was far more intense! I was such a good, good girl, overachiever, straight As – it was a way for me to act out my rebellion. There’s something cool about being sneaky like that as a kid Plus it’s a huge high. Alanis Morisette – Singer and songwriter I went through a real kleptomania phase in my early teenage years – chocolates and other tiny things from stores.Really embarrassing, but I’ve done my penance! I got caught once and just got rapped on the knuckles.

I did it because I was greedy, my mother had said I couldn’t have them and so I put them in my pocket When she found out, back I went I was crestfallen I don’t think it’s really acceptable to steal anything. I do believe that from little acorns great oaks grow: if you step a little out of line, you compromise your principles. William Hague – Former leader of the Conservative Party Yes, I think it’s morally wrong to steal a spoon; even if you’ve just spent £600 on a meal.That’s just not part of the deal, is it? I’ve never stolen anything, not even something as small as a spoon Not consciously, anyway I was brought up properly. Jenni Murray – Broadcaster I stole some sweets when I was four, black jacks and sherbet lemons, two for a penny, from a tantalising display.My mother made me take them back. When I was about 27 and I had two children and very little money, I went into a phone box On the shelf was a new box of cornflakes I thought it couldn’t do any harm, so I took it When I got home my wallet had gone. It’s superstition, but ever since I’ve thought if you take something you’ll lose something.

It was only things like fountain pens.In those days it was more of a dare But I don’t think any of it is acceptable, really. We asked if we could buy one and he looked around and said, “No, just put it in your bag.” Beryl Bainbridge – Novelist I did as a child, from Woolworths. Now I think banks are fair game to an extent – not violent robbery of course, but pilfering They can afford it The local shopkeeper can’t. Terry Jones – Monty Python star I remember nicking a coffee cup from the restaurant La Coupole in Paris.Everybody used to nick the coffee cups, so I think they’ve started selling them now The waiter connived, though.

Jo Brand – Comedian The last thing I stole was some flying saucer sweets from our local sweetshop when I was small.I got caught. The shopkeeper gave me a telling-off in a Kent village kind of way, stern yet kindly, and threatened to tell my mum and dad I’ve never done it since, so he was very effective. I love Auden, and I couldn’t afford it, so I wrapped it in newspaper and walked out. I thought stealing literature was justified – it was a good cause Now I’d say that stealing is not a good thing to do. I sent the cover back with a small furry camel I bought on holiday and I wrote, “Sorry, Ma’am, I didn’t mean to give you the hump.” I know it’s a bit naughty and I apologise now. William Boyd – Novelist The only thing I have ever stolen was a book while I was at university in the mid-Seventies.It was The English Auden; a collection of early poems, from Blackwells I think, in Oxford, and it was simply beyond my purse. Denise van Outen – Actress, who smuggled souvenirs out of Buckingham Palace in 1998I’m afraid being locked in a loo at the palace with all those things was just too tempting.I got myself into a right panic and stuffed [an ashtray and a velvet cover for a toilet tissue box] up my cardigan I was astonished nobody noticed.