The regions’ small advantages

card declining was not unexpected. Instead Bradley James Thomas was dining out fully aware his stomach was bigger than his wallet.

The total sum stolen during Thomas’ binge wasn’t huge - $144.80 divided by six meals equals just over $24 a pop. It was heartening then to read that some of the businesses taken advantage of would continue to trust the better nature of their diners and keep their approach the same.

It’s the kind of attitude you’d expect to see replicated from the far North to the deep South - outside the bigger city limits of course, where it would be most unexpected for a diner in, say, Ponsonby to get away with an ‘‘I’ll pay you later.’’

Perhaps it’s just that we’re not so frustrated and angry from sitting in traffic for an hour a day, cranking the radio and maybe enjoying a smoke, as ‘leisure time’. More likely it’s that we’re still small enough that this kind of occurrence is still unusual and you can generally (though of course not always) trust the people you encounter.

That more than makes up for not being able to Uber out and grab a bite at an exotic establishment where the chef is more famous than the food.

The fact it seems it won’t last forever is cause for regret.

Populations are growing, albeit slowly in some regions, but the more people there are the more likely you’ll encounter the odd ratbag. That’s why cities are hotbeds of crime - not because people inclined to to an ultraurban environment have a higher propensity to crime, rather it’s just a proportional reality.

And at the same time as the population grows, so does the gap between the rich and the poor, or at least that’s what the studies seem to tell us.

New Zealand’s regions are generally affluent places, more likely to host small pockets of poverty, rather than mass imbalances between large sections of the population, but those demographics can change.

And when there’s more people, and more of them are poor (and hungry) you can expect a rise in the type of offending highlighted this week.

In those circumstances, it won’t take long for the attitudes of those being taken advantage of to change and we can all get used to a big smoke culture of mistrust towards those around us.