I am a very absentminded person in a family of absentminded people. When one of us has lost something, we have generally found that people are good about finding a way to get in touch and return it to us, even if it's a small thing.
The only time I can think of when this didn't happen was when I left my digital camera in the college library on night. Judging by the timing of when I left the library, when I called to see if it had been found, and when I checked the lost and found and realized that it wasn't there, it could only have been a library employee (probably one of those rascally young males!
) who pocketed it.