post 55. You must have come for the candlesticks.

A scene from Les Miserables,

In the novel by Victor Hugo, Jean Valjean has recently been released from jail and is looking for lodgings.  That is no easy task because, in those days in France, ex-convicts had to carry special identity cards.  All the innkeepers are suspicious of him and will not take him in.  He spends four days wandering the streets until at last one make takes pity on him – a bishop.  Valjean goes to bed, waits until the bishop is asleep and then goes around the house, looking for things he can steal.  He soon finds the family silver and runs off with it.

The police soon find him with the silver and, assuming that he has stolen it, take him back to the bishop’s house and knock on the door.  What happens next is a shock and surprise to everyone.  The bishop says “Ah, there you are, Valjean!  How good to see you.  I thought you’d be back.  You must have come for the candlesticks.  They’re silver too.  I meant you to have them as well.”  Then turning to the policeman, he says: “You didn’t think he was a thief, did you?  Oh no, I gave him this silver; it’s his.”  The baffled gendarmes go away, leaving Valjean with his mouth wide open in disbelief.  He is never the same again.

Excerpt from True Worship by Vaughn Roberts

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