Former BYU and Philadelphia Eagles running back Reno Mahe entered a plea of no contest Monday to charges that he and others stole thousands of dollars worth of gasoline from a Salt Lake concrete cutting company. He’ll pay $3,000 in restitution plus court costs. Mahe was alleged to be one of several individuals who pumped gasoline from the company’s storage tank using a special code over three months in 2010.

Mahe doesn’t dispute taking the gasoline. He just says he thought it was a gift. It was just one item in a flood of gifts that defined his life. “All the free things that people offer us,” he told one reporter. “It’s ridiculous.”

His story is that he never suspected that going to a concrete cutting company after hours to pump gasoline might seem a little shady. Why wasn’t the gasoline pumped in the daytime? Don’t ask troubling questions.

In fact, I assume that Mahe was so honest that he reported the value of the gasoline gift on his income tax return. Right.