In 1970, an unknown thief picked Rudolph Resta's wallet from the pocket of his coat, which was hanging in a closet at the New York Times building. Forty years later, a security guard found the wallet hidden in a hole in a wall. After a series of magical coincidences, an NYT reporter tracked down Resta, gave the wallet back to him, and turned the whole affair into a charming story for NYT's City Room blog.

Click to viewMoral of the story: If you're going to lose your wallet, choose an institution populated with investigative journalists. And if you want to retrieve your lost goods in a timely manner, you'll need journalists who work at a place with a faster news cycle. Personally, I only lose my purse in the vicinity of TV reporters who specialize in live broadcasts from helicopters. [NYT, image via NYT.com]