Isn't it Take a Penny, Leave a Penny?

We have one of those penny trays in our store, just like every other convenience store in the world.

Some days we have tons of pennies in there, and some days there are hardly any.

There are times when people are a penny short and need to take one from the tray. There are times when people are even a few pennies short and need to take a couple. These people I don't mind.

It's the people that take all the pennies from the tray and throw them in their purse or pocket.

We have a few customers that only come in to do this. I've learned to keep an eye out for them and when I see them walking in the store, I quickly empty the trays of pennies.

I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it does.

Usually when I see this happen though, I tell them to put the pennies back. They know they did wrong, so they immediately put them back. I'm waiting for one of them to tell me to go f*** off, but no one ever has.

Has anyone out there ever taken pennies from the tray and threw them in your pocket? If you have, can you please explain why? Help me understand why people do this! It's 'take a penny, leave a penny'! Not 'take all pennies and shove them down your pocket and walk away like nothing's wrong'!