A Laundry Mystery
Coming home from my apartment's laundry room on Saturday, I dumped all of my clothing from the basket onto my bed and made a strange discovery -- both of my jeans were not in the pile.
The panic didn't set in right away, First, I made the loop several times from my apartment to the laundry room and back again, several times, making sure that I didn't accidentally leave them behind or drop them along the way.
Then the panic set in. My jeans were missing -- the only two pairs I owned -- and the only logical explanation was that someone took them. I wanted to give whomever it was the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was an accident, but I couldn't see how, considering that they would have had to dig through my dry clothes to pull out the jeans. Very odd and very unsettling.
But I want to believe the best of people, so I put a sign up asking that if anyone had taken my jeans by mistake, please, please return them. I crossed my fingers, waiting, and returned to the laundry room later that evening to see if my jeans showed up, and instead found another sign next to mine that said some good blankets also went missing, so people should watch their belongings, because it was probably theft.
I heaved a great sigh of disappointment, because I would now have to replace my jeans with money needed for other things.
However, I am not one to give up hope easily. On Sunday, I decided to check the laundry room one last time. Lo and behold, my jeans were returned, shoved into a dryer along with the missing blankets.
Whether the return was due to a genuine mistake (unlikely) or a flash of conscience or guilt or realization that the thief had been called out, I really don't care. I'm just damn grateful to have my jeans back.
The panic didn't set in right away, First, I made the loop several times from my apartment to the laundry room and back again, several times, making sure that I didn't accidentally leave them behind or drop them along the way.
Then the panic set in. My jeans were missing -- the only two pairs I owned -- and the only logical explanation was that someone took them. I wanted to give whomever it was the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was an accident, but I couldn't see how, considering that they would have had to dig through my dry clothes to pull out the jeans. Very odd and very unsettling.
But I want to believe the best of people, so I put a sign up asking that if anyone had taken my jeans by mistake, please, please return them. I crossed my fingers, waiting, and returned to the laundry room later that evening to see if my jeans showed up, and instead found another sign next to mine that said some good blankets also went missing, so people should watch their belongings, because it was probably theft.
I heaved a great sigh of disappointment, because I would now have to replace my jeans with money needed for other things.
However, I am not one to give up hope easily. On Sunday, I decided to check the laundry room one last time. Lo and behold, my jeans were returned, shoved into a dryer along with the missing blankets.
Whether the return was due to a genuine mistake (unlikely) or a flash of conscience or guilt or realization that the thief had been called out, I really don't care. I'm just damn grateful to have my jeans back.