Last night at work, I found a pair of shoes which somebody had thrown into a rubbish bin.

They weren't ruined in any way. They weren't even wet or muddy. They were in perfectly good condition. Also, these weren't cruddy $15 sneakers, these were top quality hiker/walker-type shoes of a brand and style which sells for about ten times more than I'd ever be prepared to pay for shoes.

Why would somebody throw these away?

Having considered a number of possible reasons, the only one I find realistic is that some guy threw his friend's shoes into the bin as a joke, or something like that, and either the friend didn't notice or they didn't remember to get the shoes back again by the time the ferry trip was over.

If anybody has any ideas about this, I'd be interested. Why would *you* throw away a pair of incredibly expensive and perfectly good shoes? I'm particularly thinking of reasons which would prevent anybody else from wanting to wear them.

Brunnen-"because ... um ... they happened to be my size"G