"That would mean jail time! And no one can escape it!"
The passerby's reply was very simple: "In the first two weeks, every day there were fools who tried to steal from the vending machines, but every one of those thieves was caught, no matter how much they tried to hide."
"The first time is just three days of criticism and education, the second time they're sent to do hard labor in the West Marsh, for a month of reformation. The third time... I've never seen someone so foolish to commit such a thing thrice, they might as well be dead."
"But, you know what?" The passerby seemed to remember something, this gray-black haired mountain man said: "I actually know a 'thief' who stole three times—he wasn't a thief, just absent-minded, wanting to see what would happen if he stole three times."
