Suppose I were to break into your house, steal one item, and soil the rug each day, every day, evading all determined efforts to stop me; yet you still kept goi

Suppose I were to break into your house, steal one item, and soil the rug each day, every day, evading all determined efforts to stop me; yet you still kept going to work, paying your taxes, and so on. Could you prove that the cessation of my bad actions would not throw your participation in society into a tailspin? Or, would it merely be the welcome end to an extremely expensive and annoying problem?