Rambutan and ethics

What has rambutan fruits got to do with ethics? There are 2 incidence that I witness which came to this post. One day, after picking up 弟弟 from kindy, I saw a familiar looking auntie. She is one of the 婆婆's that came to 姐姐's school to pickup her grandchild. She parked her car by the roadside and she was fiddling with a pickaxe at a tree, and she was standing over the little drain outside. When she crossed the road, I just realized she was picking rambutan from that house. She had a bunch of rambutans in one of her hands, and some of her grandchildren are waiting in the car for her. I do not think she has the permission from the houseowner for picking the rambutans, otherwise why is she being so sneaky about it, had to hover over the drain and went back to her car in a hurry.

I just thought it might be just a one-off incident. While waiting for 姐姐 outside her school, we saw the same thing with another mom doing it too. This mom used a long tree branch to get a bunch of rambutan from the house. If the houseowner knows about her intention, usually the houseowner would just pass the fruit to her right? But she was jumping about and finally went back to her car with a bunch of fruits. Besides we had been there before she came and didn't even see her talking to anyone from the house. Sigh.... why do they take things without permission in front of the children? What are they trying to teach the younger generation, is it ok to take without asking when you see some other people having lots of things? I'm sure if they had the courtesy to just ask, they would also get the fruits from the owners.

Since 弟弟 witness both incidents and he is bound to tell 姐姐, I have to explain to him that perhaps they might have already asked the owner and if they did not, it is not good behaviour. I have to tell them again and again it is not right at all to take other people's things without asking and getting the other person's permission. Same thing with throwing rubbish out of car's windows or into drains, it is not tolerated in our household. It's a tough environment trying to instill good values in children when there are folks who could not care less about it.