Wheel Luck

A couple of months back I got a new bike frame. I had a spare back wheel already and I sponged a front wheel off one of my old bikes to get the ensemble on the road.

Ever since I have been thinking about buying a new front wheel so my wheel count matches my bike count.

Whenever I have looked online though I have paused. I just can’t make myself buy a wheel that’s costs more than the rest of the bike. The cheap wheels just aren’t worth having.

Today while pondering this problem I came across one of those rusty bikes, long and captively orphaned against a light pole, caved in from drunken bashings.

But the front wheel had escaped damage and was there for the taking. I took.

Query internet; is this theft or an act of honorable recycling ahead of certain mechanical death?