What was lost, is now found

 Two of our stolen bushes have been returned. We have two more we're still waiting on.

Remember the Babushka who took swept the cement into her purse ... well, we're pretty sure our bushes also grace her garden ... perhaps in recently constructed cement planters.  We put up a sign reminding people it's illegal to steal, and that there is an outdoor video surveillance camera.  She stops by the store regularly, and during a recent visit she tentatively asked how long the video surveillance cameras have been working. "A few weeks." The consternation showed in her eyes. "Do you know who took those bushes then?" she inquired. "Yes we do," we said, though previously we didn't know ... it was like Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale-Heart. Her eyes widened. Then she put her fingers to her lips and with glistening eyes, said "shhhhh."

Speaking of the bushes, we overheard a conversation as a middle-aged couple walked by and saw the sign reminding people that taking something that doesn't belong to you is stealing. The woman remarked how terrible it was that people steel bushes. The man scoffed. "Why would you plant so many? No one needs that many bushes! Of course people take them." After 2o years of independence the former communistic and socialistic values ingrained by USSR government have not worn free from many. Never the less, couldn't a socialist/communist argue that allowing the bushes to stay put in a public place actually allows for more people to enjoy them - rather than in a private individual garden? So, essentially from both ethical viewpoints, the bushes should remain where we planted them.