a bra!
I lived in a shared house many years ago and once when I used the communal washing machine I found a mystery bra in with my stuff. It was about my size so I just kept it. A few weeks later it was draped over a chair in my room when one of my flatmates (who was a lovely girl) came in for a chat and noticed it. She said "Oh, that's funny, I've got a bra just like that somewhere" then you could see her face changing as she realised that she hadn't seen her bra for some time..."yes, just like that...". There was a bit of an nasty, awkward pause while she digested the fact that I'd probably been going through her underwear drawer and stealing her lingere. She didn't say anything about it and neither did I. On reflection I should have just admitted everything at the time but I was too embarrassed. Instead I went to a huge amount of trouble to find an identical bra and buy it. I left the original near the washing machine in the hope that she'd find it and think she'd just left it lying around. I also made sure that the duplicate bra was on constant display in my room so that she could see that there really were two bras and I hadn't stolen hers! I don't know if it worked because I moved out shortly afterwards and didn't speak to her much after that. The worst thing is that a year later she found out she had cancer and died not long after. Now whenever I think about her all I can think is how guilty I feel for unintentionally stealing her bra.
(Mary Mandolin still had it on, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 19:05, Reply)