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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think, surely, the tradesman didn't steal a fiver?

30 replies

FiverQn · 05/10/2023 11:48

I sold an item online yesterday and the buyer came to collect it. I was on hold on the phone at the time (so possibly being a bit absentminded) so gave her the item, took the £5 note off her and put it on the sideboard in the hall.

For the next few hours I was downstairs, didn't go upstairs. A couple of hours later a tradesman arrives to quote for a job. I opened the door and showed him into the room, we were in there for a few mins and then I showed him out. In other words, I had eyes on him while he was in the hall.

Later last night - I realised - no fiver. Scoured the hall, and dowsntairs rooms and it's nowhere to be seen. It's only a small house so not many hiding places.

DH thinks the only logical explanation is that the tradesman took it. I can't believe someone would do that, although I accept the £5 has utterly disappeared and it's really frustrating me!

(Also, I'm disappointed if that's the case as he has excellent reviews and I wanted him to do the work Sad)

AIBU?

OP posts:
Motomum23 · 05/10/2023 11:54

I think it's unlikely if you didn't leave him unattended that he would have the gall to take £5 off your sideboard. More likely its in a pile of papers/ blown away under something.

Original poster
FiverQn · 05/10/2023 12:18

This is what I want to believe, but we have tripled checked everywhere and it is nowhere to be seen!

OP posts:
YouveGotAFastCar · 05/10/2023 12:21

There's an absolutely minute chance that the tradesman risked a job to steal £5 when you were in the room with him the whole time, and him only being in there for a couple of minutes. It's so brazen that it's nonsensical. It's more likely that your DH stole it; and I'm guessing that's pretty unlikely too.

One of you will have absent-mindedly moved it.

Snowinjulyy · 05/10/2023 12:22

Is it possible he could have thought it was a tip? This happened to me and DH once when we were really young and on a package holiday (and on a tight budget.) Left some change on a dressing table in the hotel room and the maid/s took it.

ChessieFL · 05/10/2023 12:24

Might it have blown out of the front door when you opened it to let the tradesman in/out?

Circumferences · 05/10/2023 12:24

It would be totally ridiculous if a tradesman came along and nicked a fiver!

I really wouldn't jump to conclusions.

I had a similar situation recently- a friend held a dinner party. She had a WhatsApp group set up for it so people could car share, sort who'd bring what etc etc.
After the party she messaged the group saying a watch had gone missing from her bedroom did any of of us know about it! We were all under suspicion 😂
It was days later where she messaged again to say "oh it's ok I've found it I'm glad none of you stole my watch" it was ridiculous. She's really gone down in my opinion.

It's highly likely the fiver has gone down the back of a shelf of something.

purplecorkheart · 05/10/2023 12:25

It is highly unlikely that the trade person has taken it. Either it got blown back outside when the tradeperson was going out, you moved it without noticing or your dp has.

Jessforless · 05/10/2023 12:29

A tradesmen isn’t going to risk a job and reputation for a fiver. Something else happened to it.

Ramalangadingdong · 05/10/2023 13:15

something I have noticed lately: I plan to do something and imagine myself doing it - then I can’t find the thing and I eventually realise I put it in my purse instead but because I imagined putting it on the sideboard it is lodged in my brain as a memory and I could swear blind that is what I did. I have noticed this in others too. It is more acute if I am stressed, which it sounds as though you might well have been because you seem to have been juggling quite a lot that day.

I don’t think it is likely the tradesman took it.

jlpth · 05/10/2023 13:25

It’s unlikely he took it - more likely it blew away when the doors were opening and closing. Could it have actually blown out of the door? Did you just have it loose, or was there something heavier on it stopping it from blowing away?

Saoirse82 · 05/10/2023 13:33

Of course he didn't take it. Hardly worth his job and reputation for a measly £5.

TheNoodlesIncident · 05/10/2023 14:13

But you escorted him through the hall both times. How would he have been able to pick it up without your seeing him?

Do you even remember the fiver still on the sideboard when you came back downstairs? If you didn't weigh it down with anything, it could have blown off when you opened the front door. It's either still obscured somewhere or someone else has picked it up.

(FWIW, I've found in life that people who say readily that "someone must have stolen it" are the generally dishonest people who judge others by their own standards. It's a definite pattern, too often to be coincidence.)

margotrose · 05/10/2023 14:15

How could he take it when you say yourself you had your eyes on him the whole time?

JustWimpy · 05/10/2023 14:16

Could have stuck it in your pocket or somewhere else instead of the sideboard?

ohtowinthelottery · 05/10/2023 14:23

It's more likely you put it away somewhere as you thought you'd better move it before the tradesman arrived!

theduchessofspork · 05/10/2023 14:30

The job is worth quite a lot more to him than a fiver. Point that out to Inspector clouseau.

You just put it down somewhere

Lovingitallnow · 05/10/2023 14:34

Check your pockets, I think it's more likely you've put it somewhere mad. I couldn't find the mini rice cakes the other day and I'd put them in the drawer where the little kitchen bill clip things go. But obvs when not in use not when they're attached to the open bag of food still. What an eejit. I couldn't find them for a full day and 100% blamed the kids for sneaking them all.

PurplePanther1 · 05/10/2023 14:42

Any chance that whilst you were on the phone, the person that bought the item saw a chance to pinch the fiver back?

Kissmas · 05/10/2023 14:53

In your phone case?

CacenCaws · 05/10/2023 14:58

How could he have taken it? he didn't have an opportunity did he?

ginasevern · 05/10/2023 15:54

@FiverQn
Are you sure the buyer handed you a fiver? You were pretty distracted and perhaps you subsconsciously thought she handed you money. I did something similar once myself. Alternatively check your pockets, down your bra etc.

Terrribletwos · 05/10/2023 15:57

Absolutely not! Your thinking is ridiculous!

Scottishdreams1991 · 05/10/2023 15:59

I had the same happen but it was a pair of my knickers.

Georgiepud · 05/10/2023 16:06

Any dogs in the house? My mum left a couple of notes on our kitchen table for some shopping I got her. They were nowhere to be seen when I came home, but I know the culprit.

girlfriend44 · 05/10/2023 16:06

nobody can answer. He may have, he may not have.

Put it down to experience and move on.

Dont leave money lying around when strangers are in the house in future.