allegory

so you are sitting alone at home one day, and the phone rings. It's the magazine subscription service, and they say that your Aunty Ethel has given you a gift of a years free subscription to XYZ magazine. You are about to tell them that you have never even read XYZ, and you don't have an Aunty Ethel either, when you suddenly think 'wait...they don't know where to send it to, but they think it should be sent to me. For a while, at no cost...' and instead you say 'oh cool, my address is ABC'....

a few weeks pass, and you are really enjoying getting XYZ, which you haven't ever bought before. You feel a little bit bad about it, because after all, Aunty Ethel is paying for it to be sent to her favourite niece. But not so bad that you are going to call up and tell the subscriptions dept that there has been a mistake. You read XYZ from cover to cover every week, and every week you discover a really special column, or a really interesting article, and you think to yourself that you are really lucky, because you could never afford this at the regular cover price....

so you are sitting alone at home one day, and the phone rings. It's the local branch of the mafia, to say that you have been taking their favourite niece's copy of XYZ every week. Even though you know it was never meant for you, and no...it doesn't make any difference that you felt bad about it. Because you have had many, many days in which to call up and give them the right details, and you have never done it. Every week, you have justified it by thinking that the niece obviously isn't missing it, that between her and Aunty E they don't seem to appreciate the mag anyway, that if they'd like, you can return all the copies you have been sent so far, and no harm done...

and the dude on the phone laughs, and tells you that it is way too late for that. If you were going to be honest, the time is long past. If you meant no harm, it is also irrelevant. If you think that your punishment is to never get the magazine again, to never know the end of the story that they print a chapter from every week, to miss reading your favourite bits every day....? He laughs again, and tells you that you are going to hurt way, way, way more than that. Forever....