It was a stormy summer night, and I was folding my laundry when I realized some of my socks were missing their pairs. I shrugged it off until I saw a documentary on the “history” channel about sock-stealing gnomes.

The TV show presented experts from all over the world presenting their research on the matter and they were so convincing that I decided to catch the culprits in the act. I set up a trap with my camera, but after reviewing the footage, I found nothing. Determined to catch the thieves, I bought a rugged and waterproof case for the camera and recorded the next experiment from inside the dryer.

The laundry finished, and once again, socks were missing. This time, however, the video revealed a shadowy figure that resembled a person with a pointy hat. I knew I was onto something, so I bought two more cameras and set up another experiment.

As the machine tumbled, the cameras bounced up and down until suddenly, the sound was not as loud. When I retrieved the cameras, I found that only two were there. Reviewing the footage, I discovered that they only recorded 30 minutes of static.

At this point, I was about to give up, but then I remembered something I read about gnomes being afraid of laughter. So, I set up a recording of myself telling jokes and laughing hysterically while doing the laundry.

And it worked! The next time I did laundry, all of my socks were there. I had finally outsmarted the sock-stealing gnomes. But just to be sure, I kept a pair of mismatched socks out as an offering to the gnomes. After all, you never know when they might strike again.