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“How much would you have to steal,” asks Cleptomaniacs and Shoplifters Anonymous, LLC, “to finally feel satisfied or to make life fair?” The implied answer: you could never steal enough, as many shoplifting veterans could attest.

Exhibit A: the Facebook group “Shoplifting is Awesome,” a digital waterhole for those who get an adrenaline rush from stealing goods. On the group’s wall, a member airs his frustration with how harshly shoplifting is punished. Another calls it “harmless fun.” What’s a bag of Doritos going to cost a big corporation, anyway? Times are tough and conditioner can be expensive. Or as one man puts it, “Paying is for suckers!”

Retailers would beg to disagree. In the United States, shoplifting accounted for an estimated $15.1 billion in lost revenue in 2009, and customers are footing the bill. According to the Center for Retail Research, at least $208 of your household shopping bill goes to compensate for lost goods and extra security measures. Shoplifting also hurts employees by shrinking funds intended for pension benefits or new jobs.

Recent surveys show that the recession is causing a surge in shoplifting and employee fraud. In the United States, the percentage of sales lost to theft increased 8.8% this past year, from 1.48% to 1.61%. “These losses drive consumer prices higher and can force unprofitable stores to close,” says Mark R. Doyle, president of Jack L. Hayes International, a consulting company that specializes in shoplifting.

Nevertheless, the odds are good that you know a shoplifter. The odds an adult has ever shoplifted are 1 in 8.85. Men are more likely than women to pilfer from stores (1 in 1.69 shoplifters are men; 1 in 2.46 are women). And those who have shoplifted are more likely to have gone to college (1 in 1.66) and/or have a personal income of at least $70,000 (1 in 10.65) than those who have not been shoplifters. So necessity is by no means always the mother of sticky fingers. Of course, there will always be those who steal what they really need (or believe they need)—from Jean Valjean to the Spokane couple who allegedly stole $18 in diapers from a Safeway (it made the news because the man reportedly yelled "Sorry," before punching a security guard). But for many, shoplifting is a psychological problem.

Nineteenth-century psychologists first identified kleptomania as an impulse control disorder characterized by deriving pleasure from the act of stealing rather than from the stolen object itself. According to UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Heather Krell, the average kleptomaniac steals 49 times before he or she is caught. The Chicago Tribune reported recently about an 86-year-old Chicago woman with over 60 theft arrests over more than half a century. Of course, that persistent pilferer didn’t get nearly the press generated by the 2001 case of Winona Ryder’s illegal $5,560 shopping spree at a Saks Fifth Avenue department store. But while the actress’s arrest raised awareness about kleptomania, today’s younger set might need a booster shot—Binghamton University basketball player Malik Alvin was picked up in 2008 for swiping condoms from a Wal-Mart, injuring an elderly woman in his attempt to escape.

Some shoplift for the extra cash. When businesses report missing goods, police often find the contraband on sites like Craigslist or eBay. Such thieves go for small but big-money items, like baby formula, which some stores now keep under lock and key. In March 2009, law enforcement officials broke up a crime ring that had stolen $17.5 million worth of formula.

A Roman Catholic priest in Illinois was arrested in January, 2010 for pilfering butter and a sofa cover. Police didn’t report his motivation, but presumably he knew the Ten Commandments. Thou shall not steal, says the Eighth. For a kleptomaniac, though, shaking the shoplifting bug can take more than a prayer.