Punishment for unauthorized movement of military property

I read about a case where a serviceman was sentenced to 10 years for taking a TV from his unit, allegedly for safekeeping, although there was no order for this. I'm curious, in such situations, if a serviceman genuinely intended to protect property during shelling, are their actions always qualified as misappropriation and punished so severely? Are there any circumstances under which a court might not consider these actions a crime if there was a good intention and the property was later returned?