My mother told me in the hospital: “You should speak to my cleaning lady. She stole my clothespins. If she steals my clothespins she will steal other things as well. I used to have a basket full of clothespins in my bedroom, but since last week the basket is half empty. These are precious clothespins, not your run-of-the-mill clothespin. If she admits that she stole my clothespins I’m willing to forgive her. But she should admit it, she should be honest about the fact that she saw my clothespins and that she couldn’t control herself.”

“Yes,” I answered. “I will speak to her. I will take care of this.”

My mother added: “These clothespins are not for sale anymore. You can’t get them nowadays. They are probably worth quite a bit of money.”