Colleague stealing

Why worry - you have noticed a discrepancy, you're not going to your boss accusing anyone, you are just saying "I am a bit worried as I can't understand where xx has gone" then let him deal with it as he sees fit. You don't need to mention any particular person at all.

I just feel awful. Many years ago I was sort of accused of doing something I hadn't done and, although it was quite clear i was entirely innocent, it still left me feeling devastated.
I know I will speak to him tomorrow, he is very approachable but there's just this niggling voice in the back of my head telling at me not to say anything.

Grannyben, all you are doing is your job, an employer will expect all employees to inform him if something is going wrong. Supposing you say nothing and then things get worse, your manager finds out, and discovers you knew about it all along, but said nothing. You will feel much worse then.

Along time ago in a junior post I had to check all expense accounts before submitting them to my manager for signature. My main job was just to make sure all receipts were there and everything added up. It soon became clear that one employee in particular was submitting expenses with huge amounts for things which (then) you didn't get receipts for; taxis and phone calls.

It got so bad that in the end I told my manager because I was concerned that if someone else found out, I would get it in the neck, for not commenting on it, when I could see what was happening.

You are in the same situation. From every point of view, to do anything other than as you plan is wrong.

Of course you must speak up! As wildswan says, you needn’t accuse anyone, just state the facts, that stock is missing. If you don’t speak out now, you may find that you’re under suspicion yourself when someone else notices the shortfall.

Thank you all. I will be speaking to him in the morning, it's just that niggling worry that I've got it wrong when the reality is i know I haven't. It's just nice to have others confirm that, of course, I must report it.

There is nothing from what you've posted to suggest its this person who has stolen stock.
So you really would just be pointing out the issue to your boss.

Thank you MissA, unfortunately any discussion would clearly identify this one person and the really awkward thing is, if I didn't report it, it's highly unlikely the missing stock would ever be identified.

If he is stealing from the company, he is stealing from you. If he thinks he is unnoticed and takes even more he could put the future of the company and your job at risk.

Ah, I see, grannyben.
I can understand why you're a bit reticent, but it has to be done, not least to protect your own position.

That's right Monica. What annoys me is a number of us are on low household incomes but we have always paid for any goods we have had (at discounted rates). Our employer also extends this discount to our family members. I know we sometimes moan about him but he needs to be able to trust us

You know you have to speak up - it's just how you do it that is the awkward part. Could you ask that your figures are checked as you feel that you must have made an error in the calculations. This will probably bring the issue to light and then it's up to your boss to make the next move.

What sort of stock?

It might be best not to disclose that, seeing as how threads can end up elsewhere.

We order some items in for people and they are tracked and accounted for 100%. Other items are brought in on a pallet and are sold "off the shelf". It's these items which are really impossible to track (builders merchants goods).
It's highly likely anyone would ever miss the items, I'm only aware because I overheard the employee talking to the customer about the goods they were going to get and, today, I saw the invoice with a whole section of goods which we supplied missing. If I hadn't overheard their conversation i would have been non the wiser

Thank you MissA. I've tried to be a bit vague

Yes I agree with Willow500 you have to mention this
The calculation error seems like good way to go.
Good luck.

Thank you sodapop

For what it’s worth I agree too Don’t paint your own past difficulties into this picture it will wrongly colour it
You wouldn’t sleep if you didn’t say something it would play over and over like a stuck record
Good luck

Thank you bluebelle

Willow500 has given you good advice.

I've been in the position, over 25 years ago, of noticing a discrepancy which was eventually found to be somebody's dishonesty. I just mentioned it to the boss and asked "innocently" if there had been a mistake. The issue got resolved.

If he isn't stopped, your colleague will do it again and your employer will lose even more. You have to tell the boss.

Good luck GrannyBen - I hope it goes ok tomorrow.

Just as we are meant to help the police to enforce the law we should also bring evidence of theft to the attention of our employer.

It might be too late now but wouldn’t it be better to mention to your colleague that you had noticed the missing items? Give him a chance to rectify or explain or stop before you tell on him?