The Forbidden Fruit

The article transcribed below is from the Merthyr Telegraph 153 years ago today. Do you think this was a fair sentence or totally disproportionate to the crime?

The Forbidden Fruit

John Davies, labourer, was charged with stealing four apples to the value of 1d, the property of the Brecon and Merthyr Railway Co. Peter Stormouth said: “I am carriage and waggon inspector at the Pant station; at six o’clock yesterday morning I was at the station and saw the prisoner on the line; I watched him go to a truck containing sacks of apples, unloose the covering, and I then went to him; he had his pockets full of apples; I asked him what he was doing there; he said “I came after apples;” I asked him for whom; he said “for myself to eat;” I handed him over to the goods clerk”. P.S. Howlett said he received the prisoner from the station master; he told him the charge; he said, “I was passing by, saw the apples, and thought I should like some, and took four.” The station master said that petty pilfering had been going on to a great extent on the line. It was not of course the value which the Company regarded, it was the protection of public property which they sought. His Worship quite agreed with this, and sent the defendant to digest the forbidden fruit in Cardiff jail, where he will remain for 21 days.

Merthyr Telegraph – 15 October 1864