I understand why you wouldn't have gone to management right away. You, as a good person, want to keep the faith that another person will change when faced with exposure of their activities or just because of the shame that they were discovered stealing or whatever, because that's what you would do. You want to believe that everyone out there has that bit of goodness/virtue in them that can come out if they are just pushed a certain way. It's hard to understand people like that, who don't care at all that they are stealing from the very people giving them a job, who have no remorse for their activities, and obviously no compunction about screwing you over if you get in the way. It's also hard to realize how these kind of people affect you - they make *you* a harder and more suspicious person, because eventually you realize the only way to get around those people is to play their game better than they do. We're all taught about helping others and giving second chances, which is what makes something like this difficult - if you had gone straight to management you probably would have felt bad about the 'what ifs' of the situation. Judging by the way they acted, though, maybe you are better off overall/long-term not being there. They obviously don't care enough about themselves and their business to catch the money loss, and so they wouldn't have cared about you as a quality employee either. I know it totally sucks right now, though.
