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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

I accidentally stole a saucer

98 replies

WomanStanleyWoman · 02/02/2022 14:30

This is going to make me sound a bit mad, but what the hell

Where I live it’s quite common for people to leave things they’re giving away on their front wall or outside the house (books, toys, old cups/glasses etc.)

I went past this house a couple of streets away the other night and there was a saucer and a little bowl on the wall. The saucer had the exact pattern of the china my grandma used to have. I don’t usually believe in ‘signs’ or anything like that, but it would have been her birthday last week, so I was feeling a bit sentimental and decided I’d take the saucer.

Then last night I went past the house again. The bowl was still there, but with a different saucer… and they both had cat food in them. Obviously the first night the cat must have already eaten the food, or the owners hadn’t replenished it… but yes, I basically stole their cat food dish.

Do I put it back (creating the mystery of the disappearing and reappearing saucer in the process)? Or do I accept that it probably wasn’t a family heirloom if they’re using it for cat food and keep schtum (and keep the saucer)?

🙈🙈🙈

OP posts:

CareBear50 · 02/02/2022 14:49

What a CATastrophic turn of events. What strange SAUCERY (sorcery) is this

Original poster

WomanStanleyWoman · 02/02/2022 14:50

@tractorhome

I did similar with a trampoline. A rental house had been gutted and sold and a trampoline appeared in the back laneway. I assumed it had come from the empty house.

After watching it for a week or so I carted it off to our garden. A few days later I got a note in the letterbox saying I had the neighbour's trampoline, he'd only put it out into the laneway as they were having a party that night, and had obviously forgotten to bring it in again.

Him and his dad came round to collect it and treated me like an absolute criminal. It was mortifying.

Don't know what you should do in this case. If you do return it, do it in the dead of night.

I’m sorry, but I’m laughing like mad at this

Trampoline definitely trumps saucer!

OP posts:

boringbertha1 · 02/02/2022 14:52

This is brilliant. I'd put back a different saucer with a note explaining what happened and some cat treats. I'm sure they'll find it really funny.

MisgenderedSwan · 02/02/2022 14:52

I would drop off some cat snacks. Keep the mystery going! They will dine out on the story for years!

AKASammyScrounge · 02/02/2022 14:52

@howdidigettobe50something

Ah that really made me laugh! Yes sometimes people do that near me and it's good way for things to be reused by others. I can see how you made that mistake but my next move would depend on whether I knew the neighbour or not. If I did, I'd be inclined to pop round with the saucer and explain...they would see the funny side I'm sure. If not, I'd probably put it back after dark and leave them with a riddle to solve the following day! Either way I'd return it I think.

I'd probably put it back after dark and leave them with a riddle to solve the following day! Either way I'd return it I think.

The OP must creep about in the dark to return the cat' s crockery? The owners might think she's trying to steal her cat as well!

longtompot · 02/02/2022 15:21

That's hilarious! I wonder how long before a post appears on here about someone who puts their cats food out on their garden wall and have done for years but then someone took the saucer!

saltinesandcoffeecups · 02/02/2022 15:33

Definitely replace with a different one.

Reminds me of my ‘crime spree’ in university. A friend and I was giving another friend a hard time about his desk chair. It was clearly a hand-me-down cast off from a kitchen set popular 20 years earlier. At one point we swapped it it with a similar cast off chair from a mutual friend.

This kicked off ‘chair-gate’ which had a rash off cast off desk chairs being swapped, stolen, and reclaimed over the course of the school year.

That was the gift the kept on giving, we’d be at a party and hear a triumphant “Ha! There you are!” When someone would trip across their chair. It always resulted in a stealth swap, because the finder would find away to sneak in the chair they had and swap for their own.

It was stupid and harmless and everyone had fun with it… nobody actually cared about their chairs, because they were all as old and uncomfortable as the next one.

Ellowyn · 02/02/2022 15:42

So, you live in a neighborhood where people walk off with anything that's left on the wall or outside the door..

Original poster

WomanStanleyWoman · 02/02/2022 15:47

Where I live it’s quite common for people to leave things they’re giving away on their front wall or outside the house (books, toys, old cups/glasses etc.)

Which bit are you struggling with, @Ellowyn?

OP posts:

3scape · 02/02/2022 15:50

I would definitely leave a different saucer (complete with cat treats).

IncompleteSenten · 02/02/2022 15:52

It's the same here but there's normally a sign or something on the village FB page directly such as I've got X it's on the wall outside number 0.
There's a book box that's always well stocked, for example. Maybe it's a village thing.

hulahooper2 · 02/02/2022 15:58

I’d sneakily put it back

hoorayandupsherises · 02/02/2022 16:01

You've made my day.

At least the cat wasn't sitting on the wall when you walked past, that would have a whole other level of awkward.

DomesticatedZombie · 02/02/2022 16:05

@Blinkingheckythump

The story of the accidental saucer theft, sounds like a classic story lol

Scifi.

1forAll74 · 02/02/2022 16:06

Put another saucer out, with some cat treats in it, the cat might like a change of a new saucer.

DomesticatedZombie · 02/02/2022 16:07

Print off many A4 'missing' posters with a photo of the saucer and phone numbers to tear off. Stick them all over the neighbourhood. Then if anyone calls, answer with 'me-ow?'

ElftonWednesday · 02/02/2022 16:07

I'd put it back with some Dreamies in it. Then look for the thread on here "My neighbour stole my saucer"

Arabellla · 02/02/2022 16:15

Where I live it’s quite common for people to leave things they’re giving away on their front wall or outside the house (books, toys, old cups/glasses etc.)

It’s the same here (London ‘burn)!

I would take her a different saucer and ask if she would be willing to swap?

sweetbellyhigh · 02/02/2022 16:15

Leave a different saucer once a week for three months. Then stop. 🐈‍⬛

ButtockUp · 02/02/2022 16:22

I'd go round with a different saucer and a pouch of cat food/treats and tell the owner exactly what you've told us. I expect they will let you keep that saucer and you can have a giggle about it.

ChampagneLassie · 02/02/2022 16:24

@ButtockUp

I'd go round with a different saucer and a pouch of cat food/treats and tell the owner exactly what you've told us. I expect they will let you keep that saucer and you can have a giggle about it.

This, this is the decent thing to do. I doubt they're too upset about the saucer but this would be a nice thing to do.

REP22 · 02/02/2022 16:25

@sweetbellyhigh

Leave a different saucer once a week for three months. Then stop. 🐈‍⬛

Hehe - I was going to suggest this.

Different saucer, replaced anonymously and in secret, the most gaudy and tasteless you can find in the charity shops, for as long as you can manage it. And then listen for rumours of the phantom saucer leaver.

Tiramysu · 02/02/2022 16:28

@Ellowyn

So, you live in a neighborhood where people walk off with anything that's left on the wall or outside the door..

Yes, do you not?

TheHaka · 02/02/2022 16:37

😆

As a woman bumped into me in a shop my bag dropped from my shoulder. I pulled the bag back in place, but unbeknown to me I accidentally hooked a red blouse on a coat hanger from a clothes rail under the strap of my bag at the same time. I walked out of the shop, through the shopping centre, walked the length of the very long queue at the bus station with the red blouse floating behind me on it's hanger. Rather than take it back to the shop for fear of being arrested for theft I tried to give it to the woman behind me in the queue, & the one behind her. As I did my walk of shame back through the bus station & shopping centre I held the red blouse high in the air as proof that I wasn't a shop lifter. The shop owner actually slid down the wall as she laughed whilst I explained the situation. If that wasn't bad enough the bus was still in waiting for me when I got back to the bus station, & they all knew.

Umbrellas001 · 02/02/2022 16:39

You took their cat food bowl.

But now you know, you have to take it back!

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