Originally answered: “What is the sweetest revenge you’ve ever taken?”

There is no violence in this answer, but the revenge was sweet, nonetheless.

Years ago in the Boston area, there was a popular store called Filene's Basement. It was famous for its extensive racks and large, square bins of clothes and accessories at extremely low prices, as well as its crowds. If you had enough time and patience, you could often get a great deal. The original store, at Downtown Crossing in the city of Boston, closed a number of years after the following story took place.

A college friend of mine named Jenny, a female friend of hers whom I only met that day, and I had all gone to the Boston Filene's Basement to look around. Jenny was in search of a wedding present for still another friend of hers. I thought I would help if I could.

We found ourselves at one of the waist-level open wooden bins, this one piled high with scarves of a huge variety of colors and designs. Nothing we found seemed to suit. Using a technique I had perfected to access newer and cleaner items at the very bottom of the pile, I grabbed a number of new, folded scarves and pulled them out to have a look to see if there was a treasure in there. Lo and behold, the largest and most gorgeous scarf I had ever seen was in the group. I was struck speechless by its exquisite dark blue background with a rainbow of embroidered flowers and gold threads, as well as its fine quality. It felt like silk. It was still folded neatly, as brand new items often are, when they haven't been opened, used or worn. Unlike many scarves in the enormous and picked-over pile, this one had clearly been left untouched.

I immediately showed it to Jenny because I thought it would be a perfect fit for her friend. She loved it and went to look for the price tag. It was so gorgeous, we were concerned that it would be too expensive, even though all the scarves in the bin were, according to the sign, only $20 each. We couldn't believe that the scarf I had discovered was that cheap, hence the attempt to locate a price tag on the scarf.

There was no price tag. Uh oh.

This could mean that it had never had one, or it had fallen off in the riotous jostling and tossing around of the scarf pile prior to our visit. Still unfortunate. I offered to go find a staff member who could check for us.

That was when things got weird.

I found a female clerk nearby and asked if she could check for a price and give the item a tag, so we could possibly buy it.

This clerk took the scarf, examined it for less than 5 seconds and declared, “No, it has no tag because it's been lost by a customer, so I am going to take it and put it in the lost-and-found.” She proceeded to quickly walk away with it.

WTF???

As I mentioned earlier, it was clearly brand new and never used; it hadn't even been unfolded ONCE before I found it buried deep at the bottom of the bin.

My only thought was, “Oh my God! This b**** wants it for herself!” You must understand, the fabric of the scarf was truly a work of art. I had never seen anything like it before, and haven't since. However, I realized that this clerk was going to steal it under the guise of finding its “rightful owner”. And I got mad. Jenny was disappointed, but she was willing to let it go. I, on the other hand, was not. I asked Jenny to wait for me, and that I would just be a second…

I proceeded to follow the clerk from a safe distance to the complete opposite side of the store. I saw her tuck the scarf into a small plastic bin on a shelf behind the cash register and leave the area, toward some offices behind the cashiers’ counter.

Furious now, I hatched my plan.

You see, if the scarf had been “lost" by “a customer" then why not…

…be that customer?

I waited in the long checkout line, heart rate increasing (would the clerk re-emerge and see me?), until I reached a cashier and proceeded to fabricate a short story about having lost my scarf earlier that day, describing it in sufficient detail so that when the unknowing cashier went to check the lost-and-found bin, oh my goodness! There it is! Oh, thank you SO much! And away I went, scarf safely in hand. I was shaking.

I met up with Jenny and her friend outside the store and gave it to her, along with the story of how I got it back. She was shocked, but happy. And yes, it was free.

I often wonder how the original clerk reacted when she attempted to take the scarf home for herself and found it gone…

Edit 11/2/19: Over 5K upvotes??? Unreal! Thank you all.