WE have a thief in our house.

A thief who seems to like only very obscure and very specific items such as one sock, the lids from Tupperware and important letters from the school.

What they have left me with is a mountain of odd socks, hoping to be reunited with their sock twin.

(I'm afraid this is what we call them in an effort to get the children to help us put the washing away. Does it work? I'll let you guess.)

Boxes of Tupperware, piled in the Useless Kitchen Items cupboard, awaiting their lids to wander out of the dishwasher one day.

As for the letters, I blame my husband's overzealous recycling regime for their disappearance.

Many times I have found myself creeping out to our green bin, peering in and spotting the school correspondence lying discarded under a heap of cereal boxes and plastic yoghurt pots.

But another mystery item which keeps going missing are mine and my daughter's hair bobbles and hair grips.

I've long wondered where in the house the Bermuda Triangle of hair accessories lies as, again, I am forced to buy another pack of hair ties.

They come in packs of 20 and 30 so it has continued to how I can go through so many so quickly continues to confound me.

I'm left desperately searching the house for a hair bobble at night and having to put up with a makeshift version - loom bands, elastic bands and, I admit it, clean knickers.

Who is the Machiavellian character who enjoys watching from afar as we are forced to wear odd socks, use cling film over our plastic containers or - oh the shame - tie a pair of knickers in our hair to ensure we can get a good night's sleep (please say it's not just me)?

Well, one of these mysteries was solved this weekend and it seems there isn't a devious force at play - maybe other than gravity.

Our dog Polly, whose favourite place is the sofa despite our protests, began to dig between the gaps in the sofa on Saturday.

Rather than bringing up pound coins or ten pence pieces, her little claws dragged out hair bobble after hair bobble which must have dropped from mine or Daisy's hair and slipped down the sides of the sofa.

They must have buried so far into the crevice they evaded the vacuum cleaner but not her spiked nails.

So one of those mysteries has been cleared up.

Now, if she could only solve the riddle of the missing socks she will earn her place on the sofa and all the cheese she wants for life.