Don't commit a felony. Then you wouldn't have this problem.
Heard a story on the radio yesterday. Guy didn't handle his accounting properly, ended up having a $500,000 tax bill that he couldn't pay. Sentenced to 11-months in the federal slammer. He will be released in a few months with the tax bill still unpaid, but he'll likely have no way to earn a decent living to ever pay that off.
It would be great if human people were made of unicorns and rainbows, but we aren't. Sometimes you make mistakes or bad decisions. You shouldn't have to bear a negative consequence for that for the rest of your life.
what's the threshold for felony theft? is it a dollar amount?
Depends on the jurisdiction, what the property is that's being stolen, a whole lot of factors.
For example, in PA if you steal a firearm it is automatically considered a first degree felony, no matter the dollar value of the weapon.