BUSINESS NOTES CRIME LIGHT-FINGERED WORK ETHIC

Hard work and the patient pursuit of wealth do not always pay off, at least in the theft business. Last week Dallas police arrested a cleaning lady at the posh Neiman-Marcus department store on charges of stealing 343 dresses valued at $686,000. Diane Hunt, 32, was accused of smuggling $2,000 designer dresses past an intricate security system and then reselling them through an accomplice. Meanwhile, in Geneva, N.Y., Thomas Hennessey, 45, was allegedly applying the Impuritan Ethic to a greater challenge, albeit for less reward. The unemployed machinist was charged with illegally redeeming 65,000 beer bottles that he had spirited away from a warehouse and turned in at a Y.M.C.A. redemption center for a nickel each. State investigators believe that Hennessey and an accomplice may have illegally cashed in up to 420,000 containers.