Does Occupying a Mountain and Becoming King Count as Stealing?

In ancient times, occupying a mountain as its king meant seizing the mountain as one's own property, not allowing others to use it, nor allowing others to pass through from the foot of the mountain unless they paid a toll—this is the conduct of bandits and robbers, and of course it belongs to theft and robbery. The mountains on Earth, however, are owned property that belongs to the public: local residents all have the right to use them, and people from other places also have the right to pass by. Only when resources are taken from the people and used for the people does it not count as theft; if it is for private gain, it is theft.

To occupy a mountain as its king is banditry—an open robbery by force and violence. Occupying one mountain as king makes one a bandit; occupying a hundred mountains as king makes one even more of a bandit; occupying all the mountains, rivers, and lands of a nation as king must surely make one a great robber. There are still quite a few people on Earth who commit theft, which is why there are so many beings in the three evil destinies, and why the Buddha had no choice but to establish the precepts.

There is no one on the Moon, so the mineral deposits and other resources there are ownerless property; whoever mines or occupies them cannot be faulted. The resources on Earth belong to all the people of the globe, with ownership divided by region; they cannot be mined and occupied at will, otherwise wars will break out over the struggle to seize and protect resources.