Online Tracts
My Experiences With a Kleptomaniac
Who could have imagined that such a captivating character would turn out as he did?
I would never have dreamed he was a thief! Our acquaintance had all been so friendly and casual. It started one evening at my front door. It was a Tuesday in August. "An entertainer turned salesman," was his smiling approach to me. But I was not one to be taken off my guard so easily. I prodded him about his background. "Who are you with?" I asked. It came out that he had ties with several of the largest distilleries. He also had an account with a prosperous tobacco company. "At present," he continued, "I am an agent for a leading national magazine."
So I let him come into the living room and listened to him for a couple of hours. On learning of his connections, I took pains to tell him of my Christian faith and love for Christ.
"There is no place in my life for such things as liquor or tobacco," I told him deliberately. "As a Christian, my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." I was sure these words would bother or affront him. But no, he was totally undisturbed by my convictions. He would hold his views, I could hold mine. This status quo was to mark all our subsequent discussions.
In a light-hearted moment he slipped off on an off-color story. I was quick to inform him that such things did not go in my home. In fact, I cut him off sharply.
As you may imagine, I had reservations on the truth of many of his stories. Still, I must admit his experiences often excited me. After having an interesting evening together I invited him to come back the following night. "I may have an helpful influence on him," was my naive hope.
It took my wife's words to remind me that his return visit would conflict with our church midweek prayer meeting. "I should attend," I confessed, "but I must stand by the invitation I have given this friend." I shared with her some of the things he had said to me. Well, to put it lightly, she was reluctant to accept him. "I just don't trust him," she would say. She grew steadily more concerned as he took up more and more of our family life.
My entire day was boring in comparison with my evenings with this character. He had an imagination that was captivating. I would sit and laugh myself sick at all his crazy experiences. There were other times that my hair would stand on end. His scrapes with the FBI and the law were absolutely breathtaking.
If his stories were true, he was also an "extra" in motion pictures. But he couldn't talk about this without including sex. This forced me to cut him off time and time again.
Then he began to affect my teenage son, Charles and my nine-year-old daughter, Eloise. They just couldn't wait to catch his latest quip or some hair-raising tale. They would have stayed up all hours if we had allowed it. All this distraction was hurting their studies and did their health little good. I began to worry about this fellow's presence in our home.
And then it came. The "straw that broke the camel's back." One day several of my best books turned up missing. I searched in vain for them. "This fellow may be something of a thief," I concluded. "If he is," I continued, "who can tell what else he's taken from us?"
It all looked very suspicious. The next day I was so wrought up about it that I decided to check on him next door. Sure enough, he had taken things there too. I was amazed by his subtle maneuvers. They certainly confirmed my wife's original point of view.
In one home he had entered as a religious teacher. "He has revealed the truth of our modern cults," they said. Another neighbor, a salesman down the block, knew him as an efficiency expert. "He's showing me the latest gimmicks," he called after me. "The sort of thing a successful salesman can put to use." He certainly has lots of ways of getting in, I concluded.
To all of these people I suggested a check of their belongings. Most of them found something missing. At one friend's home I noticed no more Christian magazines. In another the Bible had disappeared. I was surprised to hear that their Sunday and mid-week church service time was spent with this fellow. As I left this house the husband told me their family altar was missing too.
A few days later I met this fellow entertaining at a neighbor's. He paid scant attention to me and I was glad for it. I had come to talk with their teenage daughter about her faith in Christ. Well, this fellow monopolized the whole evening's conversation. He stole all serious thinking from her mind and heart. I was sick about it. Finally, I just had to say a word to the girl's mother about this lack of courtesy. "Oh," she exclaimed, "It's that way all the time." I found also that she had a five-year-old boy who was emotionally maladjusted from loss of sleep; all from this fellow's visits. I walked home deeply concerned about what I might do.
At long last I realized my visitor was afflicted with kleptomania. Like an inveterate thief, he had stolen my books, magazines, and time. But the chief things missing were my close friends and family. I'm sure that others are having similar experiences.
Some have lost things of real value, not trifles, but precious family things they once enjoyed together. Spiritual, social, and intellectual experiences have been taken from them, replaced by only a moment's crackpot amusement.
This fellow is not at our home now. Though, I notice that he is at my neighbor's. And he still keeps them laughing or excited hour after hour.
I would like to tell you his full name so that you will be alerted about him and his many subtle methods, but I am not sure that he gave it. Yet I will never forget his initials, "T. V."
I wonder what T. V. has robbed from you? Time? Devotions? Good reading? Wholesome conversation? Church attendance? Check your list‹and see! You may be very surprised at what you'll find missing! ‹Don W. Hillis
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