User:DoctorWho42/Criminal in Utopia

"Criminal in Utopia" is a short story by American author Mack Reynolds. It was first published in the October 1968 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.

Plot
Rex Moran checks the time on his wrist teevee phone. He inserts his Universal Credit Card in the standard teevee phone's slot. He asks for the balance. It is one dollar twenty-three cents. He dials for Credit. Assistant credit manager Jason May answers. Moran puts his card on screen. He asks for an advance. May says he is two months ahead. The government charges interest on advances. Moran tells May he has a sick brother in Panama City. May tells Moran it is an offense to lie to a credit manager. He dials the ultra-market via his auto-delivery box. Moran uses it to order a toy gun. It costs seventy cents. He pays with his card and thumbprint. Moran orders a newspaper and checks the obituaries. He calls Frank Vassilis. Moran tells him he was a friend of Jerry Jerome who just passed. Moran wants to offer condolences. Vassilis tells Moran he is free at nine. Moran declines the vacuum tube transport. He doesn't have enough for the trip back. He tells the identity screen he has an appointment. His servant Franklin leads him to an escape room. Franklin leaves. Moran takes out the toy gun. He asks Vassilis for his card. Moran orders a gun with cartridges, a camera with film, clothes, a diamond ring, and some rope. Moran asks Vassilis for his thumbprint. Moran loads the gun and dresses. He takes the camera, gun, and ring. Moran ties up Vassilis and Franklin. Moran goes to a shop. He sells the ring and gets three hundred dollars. Moran goes to an auto-cafeteria. His wrist teevee phone buzzes with a police report. He throws it away. He holds up a pedestrian to order an auto-floater cab. Moran climbs in and steals his wrist teevee phone. He hands him back his card. He throws away the wrist teevee phone. At a penthouse restaurant, Moran orders a chicken dish. He takes a picture of Vassilis's card. He trims the photo. He leaves his camera at the restaurant. He orders a suite in a hotel. At the suite, he orders a lot of food and drink. Two policemen show up. They take him to the station. At the station, he meets Marvin Ruhling. Moran tells him they should make the thumbprint authentication and credit cards more secure. Moran won his bet he could subsist for a day. The next bet is six months.

Reception
In 1969, Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact's P. Schuyler Miller opined "I think the ending was unneccessary." In 1970, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's Joanna Russ reviewed Best SF: 1968 "[i]t leans toward the obvious and toward stories which have one good, clear, conventional idea" counting "Criminal in Utopia" among them.