Imagine you're at a crowded party, and nobody can enter or leave the building.
People can shuffle from room to room, cluster near the snack table, or spread out on the dance floor — but the total headcount never changes.
Electric charge works exactly the same way.
Charge is never created or destroyed; it's only transferred.
When you shuffle across a carpet and shock a doorknob, electrons physically move from the carpet onto you, then leap to the metal.
You didn't generate electricity — you redistributed it.
The carpet lost exactly what you gained.
Now here's where it gets subtle.
Bring a charged balloon near a neutral wall, and the wall hasn't gained or lost a single electron — yet it attracts the balloon.
What happened?
The balloon's negative charge pushed the wall's electrons slightly deeper, leaving the surface relatively positive.
This is induced charge separation: the wall is still neutral overall, but its charges have rearranged, creating a local imbalance that produces a real force.
Every charging process — friction, direct contact, induction — obeys one iron rule: whatever charge one system gains, another system loses.