Tangental, but Chanad Fredrike Rebbe quotes a mill owner in 17th century who would run after a peasant to return several perutot saying that mabul was because of stealing pess than perutah, he does not want to be worse than that. I am quoting this story rather than the midrash itself to emphasize that this is how tzadikim used to understand this. Maybe it was in generations where other issues did not apply.
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