Favourite earring returned

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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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On 27th September 2013, I visited Cambridge to meet up with a dear friend who also did her PhD at Cambridge almost 20 years ago. After a relaxing day enjoying the sights and reminiscing about old times, we went to the ladies loo at Lion Yard in the centre of Cambridge before heading back. My friend took the bus towards Babraham Road and I went to the rail station. When I reached the platform a charming lady, whom I had never met before, pointed towards an empty train on the adjacent platform, and asked if we were standing on the correct platform for the train to London. I said that we were, and that we would have to stand outside in the cold and wait for our train. We then decided to sit in the empty train until our train arrived. After a brief conversation around the reasons for our visit to Cambridge that day, she looked at me and said 'you have lost a earring'. I felt my ear and realised that I had indeed lost one of my earrings. She then said 'I have it!'. The amazing thing was that she had also gone to the Ladies loo at Lion Yard noticed the earring and had hooked it onto her hair. She explained that she took the earring because she felt that the person wouldn't know where they had lost the earring and so would not come back to the Lion Yard to search for it. Whats the chance of losing something in the centre of a small city, then meeting and talking to a stranger in a busy railway station, who has picked up the item and then returns it to you? Renuka
Total votes: 284
Date submitted:Tue, 05 Nov 2013 18:57:05 +0000Coincidence ID:7255