My son had a junker bike in Manchester. He took his eyes off it for a maximum of 15 seconds. It got nicked.
Perhaps the death penalty and the endemically corrupt judicial system might be a part of that? Personally, I prefer stolen bikes to arbitrary execution.
It also has an implication for jobs and employment. These aren't just faceless employees, they are real people with real lives. I was at Manchester Piccadilly train station last summer and got talking to a chap who worked as a maintenance and relocation/recovery unit. He had an e-bike towing a trailer capable of carrying around 6 hire bikes and rode around picking up bikes for repair and shuttling good bikes back to hotspots where usage was high. Probably not the best paid job in the world, but a job and something to get up for in the morning. He also seemed genuinely interested in bikes and enjoyed the job (even in 'sunny' Manchester
). He even commented that I should really replace my worn front tyre on my bike while we were chatting. If the bike hire scheme gets pulled then he and others like him will be out of work. The crime DOES have a consequence, and it isn't just to the profit/loss account at the big parent company!
Having lived and worked there I can say that it isn't the judicial system or sentences.
I expect that's big part of it, yes, having lived in Asia myself among similar stigma. But doesn't social stigma itself arise from actual social necessity? In a society in which punishment for crime is severe and often arbitrary, with no independent judiciary, and where families are often harassed for the criminality of their members, I can see how such social stigma can easily arise.
