Suspension of Disbelief

So.
As I was putting the girls to bed Wednesday night I walked past the printer and saw two copies (one too small, one too light) of the letter that the very careless leprechaun had left there.  I quickly snatched them up, and as we walked up the stairs to bed I reached over their heads and put them on the kitchen counter where they'd go unnoticed until I could dispose of them later.  


We get upstairs, we started brushing teeth, and Thing 1 realized she didn't have her copy of the letter... She looked all over her room.  It was late, she was frantically desperate.  I was helping Thing 2 brush her teeth.  Thing 1 announced she'd go downstairs and look for it.  Fine, just do it quickly.  She was about halfway down the stairs when it dawned on me what I had left on the counter.  I sprinted to the stairs as she called up "I found it!"   I got to the bottom of the stairs and she was holding both copies, looking at me baffled.   "He must have practiced," I said, I snatched them away and wadded them up, with her protesting.
We searched the downstairs, with her increasingly upset, then went upstairs in defeat.  As she was climbing in bed, we found the letter on her bed, the top bunk, which she can't see from the ground.  Hubby had put it there because he could tell this was terribly important and she wouldn't want to lose it.

She hasn't said anything since, but I felt terrible.
Thing 2 took the letter to Show-and-Tell today.  Thing 1 was cautioning her repeatedly not to let anyone take it out of its protective plastic sleeve because it's one of her most prized possessions.  Apparently she's still fiercely clinging to her beliefs, thank heaven.