The case of the pious prankster

I have a friend. Let’s call him Steve. He’s a warm, good-hearted fellow. A stalwart member of my local synagogue which he attends daily, he takes his religion seriously and puts much effort into both his prayer and his Torah learning. Being modest, cheerful and helpful, he is popular and enjoys the respect of all around him.

No-one is perfect and Steve—for all his virtues—is no exception. He is a bit of a practical joker. One of his favourite little jokes is to creep up on people when their attention is elsewhere, swiftly pick up a small item of theirs and hide it nearby.  The hidden articles are not usually hard to find, and it amuses him to see their owner looking round in puzzlement as what might have happened to a watch, pen or book that they may have placed in front of them and which, to all intents and purposes, must have grown legs and walked off by itself.

Though Steve has never hidden anything of mine, I do not think that I would be happy to share his little prank if he did. When I’m finished with synagogue I’m usually in a hurry to rush off somewhere else. More seriously, I’ve now reached an age at which, if I can’t find something in the place where I’ve put it down, my first thought is that my memory has began to fail me.

My question is this: what message does Pirkei Avot have for pious pranksters like Steve?

Since Steve’s little joke involves fiddling around with other people’s property, my first thought drifted towards Avot 5:13: “There are four types of people: One who says ‘What is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine’ is an uncouth person…”. But this didn’t really seem to fit the bill because Steve wasn’t claiming any proprietary right in other people’s things. I then remembered Rabbi Akiva’s caution at Avot 3:17 that jesting and levity lead a person to ervah, immorality. That didn’t seem quite right either, since ervah is a word that carries strong overtones of sexual impropriety which are quite inapplicable here.

This leaves us with the great catch-all mishnah of Rabbi Yose HaKohen at Avot 2:17: “Let all your actions be for the sake of Heaven”. If Steve could be intercepted at the point at which he was about to play one of his little pranks he should ask himself: “Can I honestly say that what I am about to do is for the sake of Heaven? Will it bring any pleasure to God or cause people to honour or respect Him more greatly?” Ideally this would inhibit or prevent Steve persisting with his well-meaning but sometimes annoying little tricks.

Do readers have any better suggestions?