A minor's shoplifting led to her suicide. It has divided the public into camps of moralists and champions of the law

A 13-year-old was caught red-handed stealing a few chocolate bars from a supermarket in Gansu province on Dec 29.

The proprietor of the business called her mother to pay the penalty.

The mother beat her daughter. Shortly afterward, the girl jumped from a 17-story building.

From whichever angle you look at this, it's a tragedy that could've been avoided.

The subsequent finger pointing shows a society struggling to come to terms with law and morality.

On one end of the spectrum, we have preachers who frame the incident as an-evil-business-owner-vs-a-hungry-girl morality tale.

Some even conjure up Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Les Miserables, who was thrown into jail for filching a loaf of bread.

"When a child steals food, the whole society is guilty," some argue.

The other side of the spectrum belongs naturally to legal purists, who inadvertently belong to the category of Javert, the inspector who relentlessly chases the good guy in the French masterwork. Some go so far to say that the girl "had it coming" because she had violated the law.

Let's call them the bleeding heart and the cold heart.

But the reality could have been less easily subject to broad strokes in stark black and white.

It is true the girl, surnamed Zhao, came from a disenfranchised family whose parents had to work from hand to mouth.

But they are by no means unable to purchase food.

As a matter of fact, over the past three decades, abject poverty to the degree of hunger has eased dramatically across the nation. I can't say it has completely vanished, but the Zhao family doesn't seem to be suffering from it.

To place it in perspective, let's recall another tragedy - arguably a bigger one - when four siblings in Guizhou province killed themselves early last year.

It was not poverty per se but the lack of parental care.

Their mother ran off, and their father was working elsewhere. They had money stashed away when they drank poison.

The same goes for the string of suicides at Foxconn a few years back.

Their salaries were markedly higher than similar jobs elsewhere.

Yet the media saw them more or less as victims of poverty, so the bosses resorted to salary increases.

It takes a lazy mindset to label all social ills "poverty". A society in change is fraught with all kinds of problems. If poverty is the only cause, it'll come to the natural conclusion that raising income is the ultimate solution. Or, to make it simpler, money can buy happiness.

One commentator drew another set of lessons, among which was: "One should never steal food even when hungry."

I don't agree with that, either.

If a child consistently suffers from starvation, the whole society is indeed responsible in some way.

Our web of welfare and philanthropy should have prevented such a thing from happening - given our current level of prosperity.

Had panhandling not been controlled by the underworld, an underage beggar would get food from street stands or most passersby. And that includes supermarket owners or managers, I'm certain.

Chocolate used to be seen as a small luxury in China.

It is not a snack that fills your stomach, the way a bowl of instant noodles does.

Later reports also said the Zhao girl stole not just candy bars but knickknacks that totaled 150 yuan ($24). Having two small girls of my own, I feel I can empathize with what goes through the mind of a child that age.

When shopping with me, they pick stuff that I consider useless, mostly junk food. So I impose a limit, only one item each time.

But I have to watch out in case they put things into their pockets - to fool either me or the checkout counter. It takes a while to drum into them that it is wrong and punishable. But the temptation is always there.

If Zhao had asked for money from her parents for the things she wanted, she would have been turned down. So, she stole them, which was illegal but forgivable for her age. It would take repeated admonishing for a youngster to understand the concept that stealing is bad, which would eventually become part of her moral fabric.

The problem lies with the way she was admonished on that day before the year's end. And I believe it was more the responsibility of the parent than the store manager. Unfortunately, in this case, the parent made a bigger mistake.

Some say the manager/owner should not have called her mother, but rather, the police. Since she was a minor, the police would have to call her parent as well.

The key, in my opinion, is whether the store treated her in a professional way or the way Chinese traditionally treat a thief, which is akin to lynching. Nobody knows a child better than Mom.

When the mother came to pay the penalty, usually set at a rate higher than the value of the stolen goods - by up to 10 times - it was completely wrong for her to vent her humiliation onto the child.

Yes, the situation cost the adult face, but she had to bear it in public. The store said its staff stepped in to stop her from beating up the girl.

There was one little detail that seemed to have eluded most commentators.

Zhao was reported to be a good student in school, earning high scores and general kudos from teachers and fellow students. This made her all the more vulnerable.

Had she been a "bad girl" constantly chastised for all kinds of mischievous activities, she might have gained the "thick skin" to withstand the fuss. But she was sensitive. And her mother should have known.

Reports, though unconfirmed, say the store, as a result of public pressure, had to pay 850,000 yuan to the girl's parents as compensation.

If there's a lesson to be learned for the business and others, I believe it should be empathy.

If they'd put themselves in the shoes of the girl or her parent, they may not have stuck so rigidly to the penalty for shoplifting.

There should always be room in rules and laws to accommodate human factors.

Contact the writer atraymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn