tolen Stamp

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

Every year the Lilliland Post Office featured a display of stamps from neighboring countries. The stamps were collectors’ items and very valuable. This year the Luxemburg stamp would be featured for just one week. The stamp would arrive by special security and be examined as to its authenticity. The stamp was certified and placed on guarded display in the post office. Everyone came to visit to see the famous stamp.

The day the display closed the experts came back to again examine the stamp before it was returned to Luxemburg. The experts said that the stamp they had just examined was a fake and was not the original one that they had examined the week before.

The Baron was immediately informed about the problem and he called in the Lilliland security officers. They examined everything and did not know what could be done. Professor Hamblin, the Baron’s chief advisor, was also called in to investigate.

Three days later a priest with a stranger appeared at the Baron’s office in Lilliland Castle and asked to speak with the Baron and Professor Hamblin. The stranger confessed to taking the stamp and gave it back to the Baron.

Both Professor Hamblin and the Baron asked the stranger to explain how he was able to remove the stamp without anyone seeing him take it, or spotting that it was missing. He said that he obtained a picture of the stamp and made an exact-sized copy. He stood in line with the other people to get into the post office building, then hid in a closet until the building closed. He then substituted the fake stamp for the real one. He placed the real stamp in an envelope and mailed it to himself in the post office mailbox. Two days later the envelope containing the stamp arrived at his address. He did not want to keep the stamp, but he did want to look at it for just a short while. He realized that he had done something very wrong and went to confess to the priest and asked the priest to come to the Baron with him to confess and return the stamp. This is just what he did. The stamp had not been damaged.

The Baron was relieved that the stamp was returned to Luxemburg with an apology. The stranger was turned over to the court with the recommendation from the Baron that he receive counseling so that he would never take anything that did not belong to him again.

Everyone in Lilliland was very happy that the stamp was safely returned.