"He shall return the stolen item that he stole..."

Yesterday, I went to a Kabala study and learned about returning stolen items.

"One who steals or otherwise unlawfully deprives a person of his property must return the item tha twas taken to its owner.  If the item was lost or destroyed, the thief must pay the owner what it was worth at the time of the theft."

Reason:  Interpersonal sins cannot be atoned for through repentance alone.  One must first repair the damage he caused and gain the vidtim's forgiveness.  In the case of theft, this calls for returning the stolen article, or paying its value.

This was such a good learning experience!

I remembered when a former assistant pastor of Long Beach Calvary Chapel talked about how when he gave his life to God, that he realized he needed to return a huge amount of stuff he took when he was a night custodian (in his "past life") with the public schools.  He said he called the dstrict and told them he had "a few items to return" and drove up to the school with a truck that included a file cabinet, book shelves, office items, chairs, etc.!

I wonder how this mitzvah applies when ice skating coaches "steal" skating students?  (I don't think the students want to be returned!"