Passive stealing
Happened to me twice now.

First time was in a pretentious sandwich shop on Liverpool Street in London, when I used to work in the City. My colleague/mate basically ate out every day, so when he suggested we go to the new sandwich place across the road I took him up on his offer. Tiny, pokey place in an alley between two office buildings. He and I spent the entire time we were in there talking about something job-related and I think the people preparing the sandwiches must have been eavesdropping, because as we left the shop with our ciabattas they completely forgot to charge us.

Second time was at an open-air market in France, at a roast chicken stall operated by a completely overworked husband-and-wife team who were besieged with customers baying for roast chicken and potatoes cooked in chicken fat. Each member of the team apparently thought the other one was collecting the money from the patrons, with the result that free chicken and potatoes were handed out to about 150 people over the course of half an hour. I never saw them on that market again.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Thu 7 Nov 2013, 19:13, Reply)