Aaaaaaaaaaah teenagers!
Been going through through hell with my 15yo stepson recently too. I feel for you buddy! He's had two bikes nicked too - the first one was sheer bad luck - kryptonite lock destroyed etc in town, the second one he got a fearsome bollocking for, as he decided to not use his kryptonite lock at school and instead use the schools own ones (that are xmas cracker type quality!) He got the bike back but it was damaged (on purpose - ripped saddle and grips, scratched paint etc). The reason he was using his 'nice' bike as opposed to the piece of crap he bought to do his paper round and go to school on? The chain had broken THREE months previously and he couldn't be bothered to get it back from his mates house so I YES I!!! could fix it for him!
Other gems from recent weeks -
"Why can't I have the maintenance money as I don't ever see a penny of it?"
"It was your choice to have kids so it's your fault you're stressed"
I could go on...
My wife works with children and there is a book called 'Blame my Brain' which is very insightful into the mad and frankly disturbing world of a teenage brain - every wondered why they occasionally seem so completely random/retarded/bonkers? During puberty your entire brain slowly rewires itself and during this process different parts of the brain are affected, and ct scans show this as having a similar pattern to brain damage after physical trauma!!!! So the next time he plays up just tell him it's not his fault he's done wrong, he can't help it as his brain isn't working properly, it's perfectly natural to think completely the wrong thing!
We found the best way to punish him was to take away his boredom killers - i.e. tv, computer, phone, ipod, bike etc. The phone had the greatest effect, that and grounding. The cash thing would personally be irrelevant as I see my lad spend it like water and it doesn't seem to matter whether he has any or not... lucky boy!