Petty Theft, when the enemy is not outside but inside the company. By Dr. Norberto Lopez Garza. The thin line between trust and business naivete. There is an uncomfortable truth that many business owners prefer not to say out loud. Part of their losses do not come from the market, nor from the competition, but from their own people. The so-called petty theft is not a myth or an exaggeration. It is an everyday reality. And worse still, it is a reality that is often tolerated, minimized, or deep down normalized. Because yes, it must be said clearly, when petty theft increases, it is not always due to the audacity of the worker, but due to the omission of the employer. Corporate self-deception. How many times have we heard this within a company? They are small things. It's not worth getting into trouble. That happens everywhere. That thought is the real problem. Petty theft doesn't begin as a serious crime, it begins as a concession, as permissiveness, as a nothing to worry about culture. And when nothing happens, everything happens. Stories that don't appear in the reports. In Ciudad Juarez, a Maquilladora company discovered that tiny components were missing from its production lines. Nothing alarming at first. A screw here, a piece there. Months later, the accumulated shortfall amounted to millions of pesos. It wasn't a spectacular robbery. It was the sum of small, individual decisions within a system that never reacted in time. At another transport company in the north of the country, the problem wasn't in the warehouses, but in the fuel tanks. Leaders that were disappearing. Adjustments that didn't add up. The conclusion was brutal. It wasn't an administrative error. It was a pattern. And that pattern had been going on for years. In the retail sector, one chain uncovered something even more serious. Employees colluding to let unregistered products through the system. It wasn't an isolated incident. It was an organized practice. The common denominator? It wasn't necessity, it was opportunity. The law does reach us, but it's too late. When the entrepreneur decides to act, the legal framework exists and is clear. The federal labor law allows for the termination of an employment relationship without liability when there is a lack of integrity or honesty. And theft, even if minimal, fits perfectly. For its part, the penal code punishes theft without distinguishing whether it is a lot or a little. The crime is the same, but here's the uncomfortable truth. The law arrives when the problem already exists, and by the time it arrives, the damage is often already done. Altered inventories. Deteriorating culture. Broken trust. Therefore, relying solely on the legal response is an insufficient strategy. Real control is not in the cameras. Many business owners believe the problem can be solved with technology, specifically with cameras, sensors, and systems. These do help, but they are not the solution. True control lies in three things that cannot be bought. 1. Leadership consistency. If the leader justifies small irregularities, the team multiplies them. 2 clear and enforced rules. It is not enough to have regulations, they must be enforced. 3. Real organizational culture. Not the one of the speech, but the one of everyday life. Are small cheats tolerated? Is honesty rewarded? Is disloyalty punished? Because a company is not defined by what it says, but by what it allows. The question few dare to ask. Petty theft forces an uncomfortable but necessary reflection. Does the worker steal because he wants to? Or because he can? When someone systematically steals without consequences, the message is clear. This is free. And in business, everything that doesn't cost anything gets repeated. Punish or prevent. It's not a choice. It's both. Punishing without prevention leads to the problem recurring. A prevention without punishment leads to impunity. The key is to act intelligently. Document properly. Apply the law strategically. Fix the system, not just the individual. Conclusion. Ethics is also a business model, petty theft is not just a legal issue. It's a leadership issue. A company can survive competition, inflation, or crises. But it hardly survives a deteriorating internal culture. Because in the end, the question isn't how much is lost to petty theft. The real question is what kind of company is being built when the decision is made to do nothing?