Engaging in Old-lady-Mugging is the Ultimate Sin. I have told you this and you are probably thinking "yeah thats a really terrible thing to do.. wow." You might even be thinking of course I know not to do that and people that do engage in old-lady-muggings are defiantly sinners.
Augustine decided to tell name the ultimate sin as something that everyone might consider doing at one point or another in their life (again I hope very very few people would consider mugging). Stealing a pear is not all that bad to most people, especially if it is during their childhood years. By telling people it is the ultimate crime, Augustine is expanding his audience to virtually the entire society. People are at least interested in hearing him out and seeing why he believes this to be the case (and if they accept what he has to say are going to realize that they are sinners and probably need to be saved.
If Augustine had decided murder is the ultimate sin, few people would question this. They would probably have gone on with their everyday life, and think "pheeew I am not a murderer... I guess I'm not a sinner either.. partayyy." His audience of people interested would be much smaller if he had listed murders as the ultimate sinner because only they would be worried about what would happen to them as a result. The rest of society would have just gone about their business (possibly even the old lady muggers).
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