They might put it in their pocket, maybe just put it on their chair, or on the floor. Somehow though, when the puzzle is finally at that moment when all of the pieces have disappeared off of the table and somebody puts in what is believed to be the last piece… there's that pause, or moment of panic. There aren't any more pieces on the table, yet there's still a hole in the puzzle. Everybody looks around saying either to themselves or out loud, "You're kidding me… there's a piece missing!"

The piece thief sees this as their moment to pull off their coup d'état. They know that they can mask their thievery as being a savior, or a "lucky" person. The piece thief claims "Oh, here it is!" and produces the final missing piece. Mentally, they're as smug as can be

• They get the final glory stroke.
• They get that little satisfaction of being the person who got to finish the puzzle.
• They deserve to get kicked between the legs.

Before I go much further, I must offer my disclaimer - I have been a piece thief. I have done this before, so I know exactly what this sick-o's are thinking. Having spent several years between puzzles, and becoming a little more mature about puzzles (not much else though), I can safely say that I'm clean. I probably need to go back to all of those who I have wronged and apologize. I owe something to my parents and siblings for having ever done this shameful deed.

The point isn't that I was a piece thief earlier in my life. The point here is that the current piece thieves need to be controlled. We all know who they are. They do these same sort of underhanded things in more situations than puzzles. They're not just piece thieves, they're peace theives. They're the ones who steal all the credit for projects that have gone well. They're the ones distancing themselves from others and bad-mouthing them when a project has gone bad. They're the ones who don't seem to have that group awareness when moving in a group of people. They keep stepping on toes and giving flat tires and bumping in to people. They live in their world of one.

Although I'd like to say that I've come up with some cool system of dealing with these piece thieves… I haven't. I generally try to avoid working with them, but that's not always possible. You all know what I mean though. As the non-piece-thieves, we all know when somebody has conveniently slipped that piece off the table. We may not know it when they do it, but we can sense it when they "miraculously" reproduce that piece. Since I'm in the mood of haiku's today (never before, and hopefully never again, since I'm not exactly a poet, but the whole 5-7-5 rule is super easy), I'll finish this off with a little haiku:

Piece thieves are so mean
Kick them in between their legs
End their evil reign

On a brighter note, and since I forgot to mention it earlier - Happy New Year. Do a puzzle with somebody you like to spend time with. They're kind of fun. No, Maria isn't a piece thief, I just started feeling guilty for being one earlier in my life.