The art of gifting

I had to go to my friend's place to attend the housewarming ceremony of his new residence. I decided to gift him a set of 6 glass bowls. I had kept it in my cupboard along with other stuff and decided to pack it only 1 night before going to his place. On the eve of his housewarming, I removed the gift from my cupboard and packed it. I gifted the same to him when I went for the housewarming ceremony. I must say - his 'Home Sweet Home' was pretty good, though quite far from our place of work. But it was, rather is, pretty good. And the food was good too.

After a couple of days, I decided to call him up to check how he was doing at his new home. He was pretty happy. And then he told me something that had me completely stumped. Here's our conversation -
He - "Hey, thanks for your gift. But I did not understand how to use it."
Me (wondering : "Bowls use karna nahi samjha... yeh kaise ho sakta hai?") - "Arre, they are glass bowls, nothing else. You can use it at home"
He - "Nahi re, they are not glass bowls."
Me - "Not glass bowls... then what are they? I remember packing glass bowls for you."
He - "There are some wires. But I don't know how to use it. And I don't know what it does. Can you help me fix it and tell me how to use it?"
Me - "Wires... How did bowls turn into wires?"
He - "Yes, they are wires. Since me and my wife did not understand how to use it, we thought of asking you."
Me - "Oops, seems like some confusion. Let me go home and check what happened."

I was surprised because I was sure the gift did not get swapped with someone else's gift during my travel. Primarily because I had the gift with me all the time and had not let it out of my sight too. So there was no scope of the gift box having been swapped. Besides, it would have been too much of a coincidence to have the gift swapped with another gift packed with the same gift paper and kept in the same plastic bag that I was carrying. Since I was at office, there was not much that I could do.

In the evening, after reaching back home from office, I decided to check how did the bowls turn into a bunch of wires. I opened my cupboard (where I had kept the box of bowls) to unravel the mystery. I saw a box, similar to the one that I had gifted my friend. To my surprise, when i opened the box, I found the bowl set in it. So my friend was right when he said that it was not a bowl set. Not that I doubted him that he was lying... but nevertheless it was a bigger mystery for me to figure out how the box of bowls changed into a bunch of wires than it was for him to figure out how to use those wires. My next thought was - "If I had the box of bowls, then what were the bunch of wires that I had gifted him by mistake?" I appraised my mom of this situation and even she was confused. And then she had a brainwave. She asked me to check if I could locate the box containing the set of computer wires and accessories (which also included a headset...) I tried to locate it in my cupboard but it was not to be found. I looked for it at all possible places at home but without any success. That was the time I realized the goof-up. Instead of packing the bowl set, I had packed the box containing the computer wires and accessories. And one of the accessories was a head-set with microphone. No wonder, my friend was asking how to use the things that I had gifted him. I called him immediately, apologized profusely and told him about the goof-up that I had done. And I promised him that I would give him his gift (and the correct gift this time) in a couple of days. I also asked him to bring the set of wires with him so that I could use them. :) After a couple of days, I went to his office to meet him and hand over his gift. I also collected the box of wires from him. He told me that initially he and his wife were confused about the gift and its usage. But after they got to know the “real” story from me, they had a nice laugh. Thankfully, they did not feel offended because of this goof-up. Phew, and I thought I had become a magician and could convert a gift of bowls into a bunch of wires...