More Words, Deeper Hole

... I can top that™:

I once mailed a birthday gift to my brother-in-law, who at the time was living not too far away, in the same province. The gift was three books.

I mailed them courtesy Canada Post, after wrapping them in several layers of old newspaper which I enclosed in an outer, brown-paper-wrapped parcel, which I then wound round-and-round with transparent packing tape, to reduce all risk of damage to the contents.

And, hey, three books arrived at his house in that very same package. But they weren't the same books.

My brother-in-law is an atheist who does stuff in theater. The three books I sent him were about acting and stage-lighting.

The books he received, were Evangelical Christian "inspirational" literature.

Our best explanation, after he delicately asked me to explain the very bad joke (and then I learned what had happened), was that someone in one of the vast CP warehouses had tried to steal from (or, perhaps, accidentally smashed open) two parcels, and finding nothing of value had just mashed the contents back into the respective parcels, willy-nilly, switching the contents.

So, presumably someone out there has a story to tell, about shipping off some Jesus-loves-you books to a friend/relative/pen-pal, only to have three books about method acting and theatrical lighting arrive, instead.

But, credit where credit is due: at least the books arrived in time for his birthday.