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Augustine's use of sin in his book is definitely effective. By introducing the sin of stealing the pears, he brings it to a normal level, where everyone else is. As the Catholic church can definitely attest to, guilt is an extremely powerful way to get people to do what you want. By making everyone who reads his book feel guilty for some miniscule crime that they have committed, they shall believe that they are in need of serious guidance that only the church can provide. That is, of course, that we allow that the book is indeed an advertisement.

The idea of sin may limit the appeal to some, but for most god-fearing people, sin is a powerful motivator. Besides, most people who read this book, knowing full well that St. Augustine is a CATHOLIC saint, will expect some talk of sinning and redemption and guilt and God and so forth. St. Augustine's ramblings about his terrible sin are expected and tiresome for those who are unaffected by Augustine's brand of christianity, and very effective and useful for those who buy into it. However, I think his talk of sin is indeed moving, he just goes on about it too much. It loses its potency after the 1,000th time he references his awful fruit kleptomania.

Besides, pears are so tasty, it doesn't really matter.