Re: is this stealing
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if i pay you to watch something for eight hours. and you only do it for four but dont tell me and take my money is that stealing.
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Yes. In this case the eight hours is part of the agreement and I am not providing the service I agreed to provide.
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if i pay you for eight hours work and assign you a task and you finish sooner but then do something else for your own benefit. is that stealing.
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No - in this case you're apparently paying for the completion of a task, not for me to be around for eight hours. Assuming the task is what's integral to the contract, not the eight hours (i.e. it's "reshingle my roof", and not "answer the phones until 5"), then when the task is done, the job's done, regardless of how long it took (as long as it's done satisfactorily, of course).
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is surfing the net while at work stealing if the boss doesnt know you are doing it.
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Pretty much, technically speaking, although it's on such a small scale that it's hard to even call it "stealing". It's akin to someone looking up from their computer work and staring absentmindedly out a window for a few seconds - yeah, it's technically a waste of company time, but out-and-out theft? I dunno about that.
So I guess it just depends on to what degree you're "stealing" company money. If you're a complete and total internet addict whose productivity drops off noticeably because of it, then yeah. But on the other hand, if you're working on some task and take thirty seconds out to look up on the web what the weather is going to be like that evening, I don't think even the most hardassed of supervisors would chastise you for that.
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