Hey there , approved ! please join our discord if you haven ' t already , if you need any help ping any of the mods or ItJustWorks ! thank you for joining <| sep |> When people are found in possession of stolen property , it is confiscated and returned to its rightful owner . That is a reparation . If we followed an agnostic to the past principle , we might punish the theft , but we wouldn ' t restore the property to its previous owner . We certainly wouldn ' t confiscate stolen property when it ' s been fenced through a pawn shop and resold fair and square to a new owner . And yet , the law does precisely this . We ' re a bit . selective about when we decide to restore past wrongs , and when we decide to declare a clean slate . And dare I say , we ' re selective in a pretty selfserving way most of the time .