How Jean Valjean’s Bread Theft Explains Human Behavior
#2 in our The Question That Changes Everything Series
This is the second article in our series where we analyze great stories through the lens of Values-Needs Theory - examining how understanding the question “What need are they trying to meet?” reveals hidden patterns in literature’s most enduring characters. If you’ve missed any, you’ll find a list of all the article ins the series at the end of this article.
A man steals a loaf of bread and ends up serving nineteen years in prison?
If you know anything about Les Misérables, you know this seems insane. A loaf of bread! Nineteen years! The injustice of it makes your blood boil, right? Victor Hugo certainly wanted it to. That said... Les Mis isn’t really a story about the French justice system.
It’s about what happens when human needs collide with human values. And once you understand what happened to Jean Valjean, you’ll start seeing this pattern everywhere - in every “stupid” decision, every “inexplicable” choice, every “how could they do that?” moment you’ve ever witnessed.
The Anatomy of a Desperate Choice
Let’s look at what actually happened. Jean Valjean didn’t just wake up one day and decide to become a thief. His sister was widowed with seven children. The eldest was eight. The youngest was one. Winter came, and there was no work for a tree pruner. The children were literally starving.
So he broke a bakery window and stole bread.
Now, here’s the question that changes everything: What need was he trying to meet?
The obvious answer is food - a fundamental survival need. But it goes deeper than that. He wasn’t stealing for himself. He was trying to meet his need for family protection, his need to provide care, his need to prevent the suffering of children he loved. These are some of the most fundamental human needs we have.
But Valjean also had values. He knew stealing was wrong. He’d been raised to believe in honesty, in working for what you have, in respecting others’ property. These weren’t just abstract concepts to him - they were part of who he was.
So what we’re really looking at is this: His need to protect starving children collided with his value of not stealing.
And in that moment of desperation, the need won.
The Values-Shifting Dynamic Nobody Talks About
Here’s where Hugo’s genius really shines. That one values-needs conflict didn’t just disappear after Valjean stole the bread. It created what happens when values begin to shift - where one conflict creates another, which creates another, which creates another...
Think about what happened next:
First conflict: Need to feed children vs. value of not stealing → He steals, gets caught
Second conflict: Need for freedom vs. value of accepting consequences
→ He tries to escape (four times!)
Third conflict: Need for dignity/humanity vs. value of integrity → Prison hardens him, he becomes bitter
Fourth conflict: Need for survival after release vs. value of honesty → He has to lie about his past to get work
Fifth conflict: Need for redemption vs. value of truth → He creates false identities to do good
Each “solution” to a values-needs conflict created new conflicts. It’s like watching dominoes fall, except each domino that falls is bigger than the last one.
This is what I find so profound about Hugo’s storytelling. He’s not just showing us that poverty leads to crime (though it can). He’s showing us how one moment of desperate need can create a spiral that transforms a decent person into someone unrecognizable.
The Hardening Process
Listen to how Hugo describes what nineteen years in prison did to Valjean:
“He had been in the galleys nineteen years. Five for burglary, fourteen for having attempted to escape four times. He was a dangerous man.”
Here’s the crucial insight - he didn’t become “dangerous” because he was inherently bad. Each escape attempt deepened the values-shifting dynamic. His need to support his family remained unmet - they were still suffering while he rotted in prison. And with each escape attempt, the stakes grew. What was one more crime once he’d already stolen? What was escaping once, twice, three times when he’d already broken the law? Each action made the next violation easier, the abandonment of his original values more complete.
This is something most people don’t realize about values: When you repeatedly act against your values to meet your needs, eventually your values change to match your actions.
Why? Because we have another fundamental need - the need for internal consistency, for self-acceptance. We can’t psychologically survive thinking we’re bad people all the time. So if we keep doing something we initially thought was wrong, eventually we convince ourselves it’s not so wrong after all. Maybe even that it’s right.
By the time Valjean leaves prison, his values have completely transformed. He no longer believes in the goodness of people or the fairness of society. His new values align with survival at any cost. The values-shifting is complete.
The Myriel Miracle (Or: How Someone Reminded Him He Still Had Choice)
And then... Bishop Myriel happens.
When Valjean steals Myriel’s silver (because he’s trapped in the spiral of values-shifting), the Bishop does something revolutionary. Instead of perpetuating the cascade by having him arrested, Myriel does the opposite. He tells the police the silver was a gift. Then he adds the candlesticks, saying Valjean “forgot” them.
But here’s what Myriel is really doing - something far more profound than charity. He’s showing Valjean something he’d forgotten after nineteen years of being labeled “thief” and “dangerous man”: You are not your actions. You still have choice.
Think about what this moment actually teaches:
For nineteen years, society had collapsed Valjean’s entire identity into his worst moments. He WAS a thief. He WAS dangerous. The cascade had convinced him that his actions defined him, that he was trapped in these patterns forever.
But Myriel refuses to see him that way. By calling the silver a gift, he’s saying: “What you did is not who you are. You took silver, but you are not ‘a thief.’ You are a person who can choose differently tomorrow than you chose today.”
This is why it worked when nothing else could have. Charity alone wouldn’t have stopped Valjean from stealing again. More resources might have delayed the next theft, but not prevented it. What stopped him was remembering he had agency - that he could choose to become something different.
The silver gave him resources to exercise that agency. But the real gift was remembering he HAD agency to exercise.
And here’s what’s crucial: Myriel didn’t just remind him he had choice - he showed him HOW to use it differently. When Myriel said “use this silver to become an honest man,” he was teaching Valjean something revolutionary: you can meet your needs (survival, dignity, purpose) through means that align with your values rather than violate them. The silver could be used to start a business, not stolen to survive. Work could provide dignity, not crime. Service to others could give purpose, not revenge against society.
Without this reminder, without someone to show him both that he had choice AND how to use it differently, Valjean would have remained trapped. He couldn’t see the way out from inside the spiral. Sometimes we need someone else - someone who can see us as separate from our patterns - to remind us we’re not condemned to repeat them.
The rest of the novel is essentially Valjean practicing this lesson. As Mayor Madeleine, he creates an entire factory system that employs the poor - preventing others from facing his desperate choice between starving children and theft. With Cosette, he becomes her legal guardian rather than simply taking her. Even with Javert, he saves his life rather than eliminating a threat. Each choice demonstrates him applying what Myriel taught: there’s always a way to meet your needs that doesn’t require sacrificing your values - you just have to look for it, and sometimes teach others to look for it too.
Why This Pattern Is Everywhere
Think about someone in your life whose behavior drives you crazy. Maybe it’s:
The coworker who takes credit for everything
The friend who always cancels plans last minute
The family member who lies about small things
The neighbor who’s constantly complaining
Now ask: “What need are they trying to meet?”
The credit-stealing coworker? Maybe they have an unmet need for recognition or job security. The canceling friend? Perhaps a need for rest or alone time that conflicts with their value of being a good friend. The lying family member? Could be a need for acceptance conflicting with their value of honesty.
Here’s what’s really powerful about this: Once you see the need driving the behavior, everything changes. You stop seeing “bad people” and start seeing people caught in values-needs conflicts they don’t know how to resolve.
The Questions That Could Have Changed Everything
Valjean’s story was preventable. What if, before stealing that bread, someone had asked him:
“What do you really need right now?” “What makes this feel like your only option?” “If we could meet that need another way, what would that look like?” “What’s important to you that makes this decision so hard?”
What if someone had helped him see that his need (feeding the children) and his value (not stealing) weren’t necessarily in conflict? What if they’d helped him find other strategies?
Maybe:
Asking the church for help
Organizing with other unemployed workers
Appealing directly to the baker’s compassion
Finding alternative food sources
Seeking aid from local charities
Were all these available? Maybe not. But the point is that when we’re desperate, when need is screaming at us, we literally cannot see options. Our vision narrows to the one solution in front of us, even if it violates everything we believe in.
Breaking Your Own Spirals
Have you ever found yourself caught in values-shifting? Where one compromise led to another, and another, until you looked back and couldn’t recognize the person making those choices?
Maybe it started small:
A little exaggeration on a resume because you needed the job
Which led to having to maintain that lie at work
Which led to taking credit for things you didn’t quite do
Which led to imposter syndrome and constant anxiety
Which led to working insane hours to compensate
Which led to neglecting relationships
Which led to... where are you now?
The values-shifting dynamic is real. But here’s the hope: just like Myriel showed Valjean, these spirals can be broken. Sometimes all it takes is one person - maybe even yourself - recognizing that you’re not your patterns. That you still have choice. Asking: “Wait. What need are you actually trying to meet here? And is there another way?”
The Real Tragedy (And the Real Hope)
The tragedy of Jean Valjean isn’t just that he stole bread and went to prison. It’s that no one, at any point in those early stages, helped him see that his needs and values didn’t have to be enemies. No one helped him find another way.
The hope is that once someone did - once Myriel reminded him he still had choice - Valjean became someone who spent the rest of his life doing the same for others. Fantine, Cosette, even Javert at the end... Valjean shows them they’re not trapped in their patterns, that they can choose differently.
This is what Hugo understood: People aren’t good or bad. Here’s what I’d add: They’re human beings trying to meet fundamental needs while honoring their values. When those two things conflict and we don’t have the tools or support to resolve them, we make desperate choices. Those choices compound through values-shifting. Our values transform to match our actions. We become people we never meant to be.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Your Turn to Break the Pattern
Next time you see someone making a choice that seems completely irrational, pause. Ask yourself (or if appropriate, ask them): “What need are they trying to meet?”
Next time YOU’RE about to make a choice that goes against your values, pause. Ask yourself: “What need am I trying to meet? Is there another way?”
Because here’s what I’m learning from stories like Valjean’s: Most “bad” decisions aren’t really bad decisions. They’re desperate attempts to meet legitimate needs when we can’t see any other way. They’re the beginning of values-shifting spirals we never meant to start.
The question “What need are they trying to meet?” isn’t just about understanding literature. It’s about understanding why humans do what they do. It’s about preventing the values-shifting dynamic before it takes hold. It’s about recognizing that the distance between Jean Valjean the thief and Jean Valjean the saint is just someone reminding us that we are not our worst moments - that we still have the power to choose.
And maybe, just maybe, we can be that someone - for others, and for ourselves.
Next: “Why Anna Karenina Had to Die (And How She Could Have Lived)” - exploring what happens when the need for authentic love collides with the values of duty and motherhood.
Have you ever found yourself caught in values-shifting where one compromise led to another? What helped you break free - or what might help you now? I’d love to hear your thoughts on how we can better recognize and interrupt these patterns before they take hold.