Principle Eleven
Tail Thyself
If you still haven’t found you object, it may be time to Recreate the Crime.
Remove your thinking cap and don your detective’s cap. For you are about to follow your own trail.
Let’s create a typical scenario. You come home from work and find a letter in the mail. Some time later you’re ready to read it…but it’s missing. You’re perturbed and perplexed. Where’s that letter?
Okay, start at the door and retrace your steps since returning home. Where in the house did you go? To what specific locations? Stop at each of them and look for the letter.
Hmm, a coat thrown across a chair. You were here. (Check under the coat and in its pockets.)
A depression in the sofa. You were here.
On the kitchen counter, a glass. You were here.
On the table by the armchair, candy wrappers and a novel. You were here.
And marking your place in the novel—aha! That missing letter.
Good work, Sherlock.
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So how’d you do?Got it? Skip ahead to “A Final Word.”
If not, there’s still Principle Twelve.
