I could come up with a legal opinion, but it depends on whether you want to charge someone with a crime, or whether you've been charged with a crime. And my opinion will not come cheap.

Here are some other questions to mull over (not necessarily 100% comparable to the original inquiry):

1 If you take pennies out of the "need one, take one" even though you don't really need one, have you committed theft?

2 What if you don't even make a purchase - you just come into a store everyday and empty the tray. Is that theft? And if it is, who is the victim?

3 If you take a regular chip from a casino as a souvenir, and the casino is required to keep some amount of money on deposit with the state gaming authority as a bond for future redemption, have you improperly deprived the casino of its funds since you have no intention of ever redeeming the souvenir?

4 If you take a chip from a roulette table, does it matter whether the casino has posted a sign indicating that "non cash value chips must be redeemed at the table"?

5 If a chip is "non cash value," does it have value for purposes of prosecuting alleged theft?

6 Does a roulette player buy chips, or merely "rent" them?

7 Do lawyers have a way of making anything sound more complicated than it really is?