Girl Trouble / School Dance - S3-E18
Continuity mistake: Besides the fact that when Helga is sharpening her pencil, the desk arrangement changes, one of the students visible when she looks at Arnold is... Helga. This happens because the shot is taken from the episode "Helga's Love Potion."
Answer: The episode doesn't really elaborate on who the kid was and what his motives were, so its pure speculation as to why he took it. Perhaps the kid could simply want a ball all for himself and decided to just take it, or was simply a rotten kid. The truth is the kid's motives are not important to the story other than it highlights Arnold was having a lot of trouble getting through the list.
Lummie ★