A reader in Florida, apparently bruised by some personal experience, writes in to complain, "If I steal a nickel’s worth of merchandise, I am a thief and punished; but if I steal the love of another’s wife, I am free." This is a prevalent misconception in many people’s minds—that love, like merchandise, can be "stolen". Numerous states, in fact, have enacted laws allowing damages for "alienation of affections". But love is not a commodity; the real thing cannot be bought, sold, traded or stolen. It is an act of the will, a turning of the emotions, a change in the climate of the personality. When a husband or wife is "stolen" by another person, that husband or wife was already ripe for the stealing, was already predisposed toward a new partner. The "love bandit" was only taking what was waiting to be taken, what wanted to be taken.