I agree, your reaction was a good one. . An 8 year old that did something like that on purpose needs to learn a lesson. I probably would have been too angry to think of what you did.. I'd probably have taken him by the collar and marched him to the woodshed.. (I don't really do that anymore, but I would have been really upset by that kind of behavior!) The sooner a child learns that there are consequences to their actions the better. When I raised my children I was always hopeful that they could learn the lessons they needed while they could pay for their actions. As they get older the things they do cannot be paid sometimes without life long scars. Better to take a child back to a store for stealing when they're 5 or 6 than have them in jail when they're 22 for stealing. He can afford to pay for this, hopefully it will hurt enough for him to learn from it..