You can take this advice, of course. But in the interest of full disclosure, I'm going to tell you how this works from both a LE and retail loss prevention point of view, since I have worked and do work in both.
You committed a crime. You can own up like an adult and take responsibility, accepting the consequences of your actions, or you can try to "get out of it."
You should know this, however: As much as you say, and probably believe, that this really is the only time you'll ever do this, and you'll NEVER do something like this again, it's probably not true. You are a dishonest person. A person like you will be tempted again and will give in. And when you do, expect no mercy whatsoever.
People who "lawyer up," and try to "get out of it" while avoiding responsibility get cut NO BREAKS. If something is on the fence between a misdemeanor or felony, we push for the felony. If the judge is looking at probation for you, we push hard and argue for jail time. And eventually, after you do enough crimes, petty or not, the hammer will come down on you. I once sent a guy to prison for 25 years because he shoplifted. There are pages more to the story than that one shoplifting incident, and yes he was on probation - but he kept violating, and doing new petty crimes, over and over until finally the hammer came down on him.
Please note that I'm NOT condemning the retaining of an attorney to make sure your rights are protected or to try to broker a deal as fair to you and the victim as possible.
But this idea of hiding the stolen merchandise, refusing to talk, and trying to get the charges dismissed for a crime that you ADMIT you have committed? The store has evidence. You want to play that way? There are jurisdictions around here in which I could convince the judge to lock you up and fine you the maximum for that. And that is the treatment you should expect.

