Why is sniffing a flower considered to be stealing? According to the Gandhatthena Sutta (SN 9.14), a monk sniffing a flower in the wilderness, that was not given to him, is considered stealing, even if it's only a hair-tip's worth of evil.

Why is sniffing a flower in the wilderness considered to be stealing?
Does that apply to lay followers too?


  I have heard that on one occasion a certain monk was dwelling among
  the Kosalans in a forest thicket. Now at that time, after his meal,
  returning from his almsround, he went down to a lotus pond and sniffed
  a red lotus.
  
  Then the devata inhabiting the forest thicket, feeling sympathy for
  the monk, desiring his benefit, desiring to bring him to his senses,
  approached him and addressed him with this verse:
  
  [Devata:]
  You sniff this water-born flower
  that hasn't been given to you.
  This, dear sir, is a factor of stealing.
  You are a thief of a scent.
  
  [The monk:]
  I don't take, don't damage.
  I sniff at the lotus
  from far away.
  So why do you call me
  a thief of a scent?
  
  One who
  digs up the stalks,
  damages flowers,
  one of such ruthless behavior:
  why don't you say it of him?
  
  [The devata:]
  A person ruthless &amp; grasping,
  smeared like a nursing diaper:
  to him
  I have nothing to say.
  It's you
  to whom I should speak.
  
  To a person unblemished,
  constantly searching for purity,
  a hair-tip's worth of evil
  seems as large
  as a cloud.
  
  [The monk:]
  Yes, yakkha, you understand me
  and show me sympathy.
  Warn me again, yakkha,
  whenever again
  you see something like this.
  
  [The devata:]
  I don't depend on you
  for my living
  nor am I
  your hired hand.
  You, monk,
  you yourself should know
  how to go to the good destination.
  
  The monk, chastened by the devata, came to his senses.
I guess one possibility is that "steal" is an inaccurate translation, and that a better translation might centre more on the "conceal" and "stealth" meanings of the words (e.g. concealing or taking a scent by stealth, secretly ... and observed only by a deva).

Another possibility is that it's taking what is not given: what is given (by lay-people to bhikkhus) are "requisites" -- food, medicine. The scent of a flower is not a requisite; taking the scent might be considered a sensual craving.