I have a son who is a thief. Unfortunately, there's no other way to put it. He is 14 years old and it is something he's really struggled with on and off for close to 10 years. When he was little it was shoplifting. We tried lectures, punishments of extra chores, being grounded, etc. We've taken him to return stolen items at the store and had him speak with the store managers. He saw a counselor for a period of time.

Over time, he seemed to grow out of this behavior. He was lucky to stumble into a situation where he was able to start his own business and earn pretty good money (for a kid). I don't recall much difficulty with theft while his business was going well. Unfortunately, the situation which allowed his business to thrive went away about a year ago. He is still able to earn money with his business, but not near the amount he used to, so he doesn't put much effort into it anymore because "it's not worth his time."

After he started high school last fall, he seemed to mature in a lot of ways. We still have had some of the normal teenager problems with him, but overall we have been very pleased with how things have been going with him. He's very smart and does well in school. He attends early-morning seminary without too much complaint. He's been applying himself in high school football and wrestling. We were optimistic that his problem with stealing was behind him.

But last month we had reason to believe he had taken cash from my wallet and my wife's purse. We had a discussion with him about it. He was emotional and claimed he hadn't stolen from us. He even commented that he had been working hard to re-build trust.

Well, we just discovered that even as he tearfully told us he hadn't stolen any cash from us, he was in possession of one of my wife's credit cards that he had stolen from her purse. And he was in the process of ringing up a bill of several hundred dollars before we finally discovered the charges on our statement.

We are emotionally devastated by his behavior... and really discouraged. We are developing a course of action, but I would welcome any suggestions.