7 year old stealing, and arguing adn lying to make himself believe himself

[Polly07]

My 7 year old son steals things from school,and his from his brother.  Example: For Christmas they both received a 5 pack  of Match Box cars.  He took his brothers, opened them, played with them, hid the wrappers.  When caught, he said no they where his, he got 2 (we just opened gifts 2 hours previously), screamed adn yelled at me to try to make me believe him.  Finally after 10 minutes of that, he admitted to it, and said he knew it was wrong.  When opening his closet today there was another toy of his brothers still in the package, hidden, as well as some of his brothers clothes.  he has sotlen money from school, kids toys, money of mine, and when asked, blanky looks you in the face and tells you he didn't do it, when caught red-handed, he'll still denies it.  That is the scary part.  He'll lie to make himself believe he's telling the truth.

[waitingwithhope]

He is stealing because he believes that he is entitled to it. In some way, he feels slighted, most likely at home. What might have started as jealousy has now turned into a coping behavior. He does not want to face the consequences or admit guilt so he continues lying because at some point down the line it worked and he was convincing so it is worth the gamble to continue lying in the face of being confronted--he has a "chance" of out witting the person asking him.
While it is possible that he has ADD/ADHD and therefore it is an impulse behavior, it is far more likely that since he really does stick with his guns and actually hides the evidence (which shows that he does know that it is to some extent wrong) that he is doing it because he feels deep down justified in doing so.
Usually these kids are stealing because they are hurting and stealing is a way too of covering up the hurt. I think you need to really have a talk with him and discover why he is hurting (or try to get him into therapy to uncover this). The problem is that unless he gets help, it will continue into a pattern of behavior where he really will believe his lies and he will end up trying to steal bigger and better things. Chances are that he does not actually want the stuff, he wants the feeling of control in getting the stuff.

[redneckmom]

Are you and your son's father enforcing a very strict disciplinary action for every time he lies?  If he knows that there is a very serious consequence EVERY TIME he lies he may think twice.  Lies can ruin a person's life yet at 7 he doesn't understand this.  Hopefully you can get to the bottom of this quickly before it becomes too much of a habit or he gets into legal trouble.  Good luck and I really hope that you can help him and your family doesn't have to worry about this.