Case 7. A Police Agent

Those who watch over the public peace in London were recently informed about certain forgers who were manufacturing counterfeit banknotes. Hence they induced a certain Caius to buy those counterfeit notes for them for the sake of proving the crime, which he did by giving fifty shillings for each note whose fictitious value was five pounds sterling. When the priests Titius and Julius read this in the public newspapers, they disagreed concerning the honesty of Caius’s action, Titius saying that it was lawful, but Julius denying it, since it is never lawful to incite anyone to evil. Hence it is asked:

1. What is scandal, and what kind of sin is it?

2. What is it to cooperate in another’s sin, and is it ever lawful?

3. How do an occasion and a cause of another’s sin differ, and is it lawful to posit either one?

4. What is to be said of the case?

1. This question is answered in “Manual of Moral Theology,” vol. i, p. 198.

2. This question is answered in “Manual of Moral Theology,” vol. i, p. 203.

3. How does an occasion of another's sin differ from a cause of it, and is it lawful to put either?

An occasion of sin is given when something is done which another takes advantage of to commit sin although what was done did not cause the sin either physically or morally.

The occasion may have suggested the sin, but it did not cause it; the sin is wholly due to him who takes advantage of the occasion to do wrong. A cause of sin on the other hand produces it, or effects it, either physically or morally. Thus one who induces another by persuasion to commit theft is the moral cause of his sin; if he merely committed theft himself without saying anything to the other, who thereupon followed his example, the former would be the occasion of the latter's sin.

The case. The London police had information about some forgers of bank notes. In order to be able to convict them they induced Caius to buy some of the forged notes for them at the rate of fifty shillings for each five pound note. When two priests, Titius and Julius, read of this in the papers, they disagreed about the lawfulness of the proceeding. Titius said that it was all right; Julius denied this, on the ground that it is never lawful to incite anyone to do wrong, and this Caius did by inducing the forgers to sell worthless bits of paper for fifty shillings.

Titius was right and Julius was wrong. Caius knew what he was doing and there was nothing wrong in it from his point of view. He was willing to pay fifty shillings in order to get certain evidence of the crime committed by the forgers. For the common good he furnished them with an opportunity of betraying themselves, and they took it. The forgers always had the habitual intention of selling their worthless notes; whenever they did this, they committed sin. But Caius had good reason for furnishing them with an occasion of selling their notes though they committed sin thereby. With this sin Caius only co-operated materially, not formally.¹

1 St. Alphonsus, book ii, treatise 3, no. 47.