Here’s the question: When does theft become an unfortunate mistake, or asset liberation, or a temporary change of possession, or an alternate utilization of private property, or wealth sharing, or nothing more than an act of a modern Robin Hood?

That’s a question faced by University of South Florida administrators and lawyers in the local state attorney’s office over the past several days as they looked into the strange case of Abdul Rao, soon-to-be former senior associate vice president for research at the USF College of Medicine. Here’s what happened. Last week, according to published reports, Rao drove his minivan to the loading dock of USF’s  Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute and helped his yardman help himself to a graduate student’s unsecured bike. Rao says the guy needed the bike so he could ride to the Department of Motor Vehicles office to replace a lost state ID and to go to a work site.

“I made an unfortunate mistake,” Rao explained in a written statement to colleagues after a surveillance video caught him boosting the bike. “I acted out of compassion for this nearly homeless man; but I failed to consider that the bicycle belonged to someone on our Alzheimer’s team. The bicycle was reported stolen. It has, however, since then been returned to its owner.”

Rao euphemized his action as a “failure in judgment.” The bike’s owner called it theft. Indeed.

Reports identify the other man as Vernon Waiters, whose extensive rap sheet includes several drug charges.

The video, posted on YouTube, shows what appears to be a deliberate shopping trip by the university researcher and the nearly homeless, but (as described by Rao) trustworthy and extremely hardworking co-conspirator. The video starts with someone riding a bike onto the loading dock. Next we see the two asset liberators drive up and check out the bikes parked off camera. Mr. Trustworthy chooses a bike, gives it a test ride, but returns it, only to come back on camera riding the larger mountain bike that the purloining pair put into the minivan before driving away.

The bike’s owner, a doctoral student, isn’t buying Rao’s belief that the campus VIP never meant to “bring harm, alarm, or disruption to anyone.” The student says it’s obvious what happened, and he wants Rao charged.

Rao plans to step down from his post at the end of this week, giving up his positions as senior associate veep for research, associate veep for USF Health, professor of surgery and molecular medicine, and medical director of clinical research for Tampa General Hospital.

Rao’s resignation denies the public the opportunity to see university administrators ponder a couple of points in their decision whether to slap Rao’s wrist or boot his thieving butt.

First, Rao makes a base salary of nearly $270,000 a year, which goes up to as much as $384,000 with administrative stipends. W hat would administrators do if, say, a housekeeper, making less than a tenth of Rao’s base take, took home Rao’s laptop, without permission, to apply online for a coupon for a digital TV converter, and returned the computer a few days later, undamaged and dusted?

Second is USF’s reputation within its external community. It’s a safe bet few community partners will accept errors in judgment by a medical researcher, not to mention a medical researcher who’s a bicycle thief in the eyes of his doctoral-student victim and possibly a host of other folks?

Of course, some members of the academy and the community may not have a problem with Rao’s twisted logic. They’re OK with asset liberation and wealth sharing, because they see the big picture small minds can’t grasp. They see the good in the end result. 

Breaking into your neighbor’s home to borrow some china for your weekend party is not a crime, because you broke back in and returned the plates, all clean and shiny. Taking your colleague’s car from the parking lot without permission so you can go to the bank and to the grocery story is OK, because you brought it back unscathed. Choosing not to pay your income taxes until you’re tapped to be the head taxman should not be held against you, because you paid the taxes and penalties when you were caught. And sneaking into this country is not really a crime, because you’re honest, hardworking, and ready to get your slice of the American pie.

I’m just being snarky, you may say. Indubitably. But Rao’s resignation deprives USF administrators the opportunity to place upon Rao a condition of employment that provides for a daily period of pillory on the campus quad where any and all may be snarky toward him to their hearts’ content.