After my home was broken into and various valuables stolen, I would go to get a tool and not find it. SOB got it I guess, so I go and buy a new one. A few months later, I find the original, so now I have two.
I worked on small planes and started thinking about retiring when I would be working under one and needed a tool. I would painfully struggle up off the creeper, go to my tool box and then stand there and wonder what the hell I got up there for.
One time the owner of a twin engine plane told me he would occasionally hear some kind of clunking noise when making a turn on the ground. I checked all over the landing gear and found nothing out of order. A year or two later I was fixing a leak in the wet wing fuel tank and what did I find but a flashlight, in four pieces. The two D cells were out and the front cap was off. I researched the log books and found the previous mechanic who last worked in that tank. I asked the FAA reps to give me his address so I could send the parts back to him along with a copy of the log entry, but they said, "Just let it go."