In fact, once someone's old enough to realize that subsequently getting in a big white van is dangerous even if it's headed to church, taking things from strangers almost becomes a social expectation. After all, those pink boxes of Christmas donuts and chocolate left anonymously in the office aren't going to eat themselves!
High school politics and fundraising utterly depend on folks taking candy from strangers. The relentless battery of lollipops dished out during these popularity contests for class president represent a much tastier approach to locking in votes than going around kissing illegitimate babies and promising to hire Deadmau5 for a residency in the cafeteria. (Full disclosure: I myself won a landslide election for class VP out of a barrage of opponents numbering exactly zero.) Without candy sales, how could the marching band afford to go pummel the morale out of lesser schools at competitions? How would the Shakespeare club raise money to perform at festivals if it weren't for bake sales? Put on shows or something?
This whole anti-social candy doctrine many kids learn is part of a house of cards just waiting to come crashing down on ol' Saint Nick and the tooth fairy. As far as I was concerned as a young Lego-eater, we were expected to speak when spoken to and eat what us country folk called a "polite bite" whenever someone kindly offered up food. We went out crusading in itchy yet conversation-inducing costumes on Halloween, totally banking on getting treats instead of tricks at each house before returning home to brutalize our stomaches and tease out diabetes at night's end. We would go out to meet the ice cream men, and as long as they could speak English good, they were okay in our book.
If at seven years old I had been told to not take candy from strangers, then been kicked out my front door to go sell boxes of Girl Scout cookies to them, I'd have had a conniption over the horrific logic. Really? I could talk to strangers to sell them candy, but couldn't take any from them? That hypocritical stance would be like saying China could sell high-tech products into the US, but couldn't get any in return (oh wait, that's real). I'd also be really embarrassed and mad at the person who decided to smuggle little Jesse into Girl Scouts in the first place.
The fact is, taking candy from strangers and striking up small conversations as we grew up taught many of us to be more normal than anything. Maybe a little fatter. Heck, for all I know, those interactions might be the only thing standing between me and tin foil hats right now. All in all, there's little reason to be scared about taking candy from a stranger, as long as that stranger isn't one of those rampant weirdos that steals kids.
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