I get a kick out of playing what I see as harmless pranks on people at the office. Back at my old IT job in San Antonio, I removed the mouse ball from my team-member's mouse. One morning, i got to my desk and everything except my computer was gone. All papers and office supplies were missing. I thought I had gotten fired. Turns out that same teammate hid everything in a file cabinet down the hall. Such shenanigans make office life a little more fun.

Last week, I spent spring break in Dallas working at the firm and was presented with an opportunity I could not pass up. One of the lawyers there is really attached to her stapler. It's heavy duty and works well. One of the other lawyers likes to "borrow" it and she freaks out when her stapler goes missing. She had gone on a vacation in Hawaii so the other lawyer naturally "borrowed" it while she was gone. When she got back, she went through his office looking for it while he was out to lunch and couldn't find it.

So my office-mate, the other lawyer, and I resolved to pool our creative abilities to come up with some kind of prank focusing on the stapler, and I had an idea. The firm was auctioning off basketball and hockey tickets to raise money for a charity, and they put silent auction forms on the fridge in the kitchen so we could could bid for the tickets. I suggested we put the stapler up for auction and see what happens. If the attorney really wanted her stapler back, she'd have to bid for it. If she didn't bid, she'd demand we hand it over, and we could at least have a little fun in telling her where it was hidden.

After the silent bidding ran its course, I was the highest bidder for the stapler at $40, and the firm got together for a verbal auction to finalize everything and see if anyone who did not bid silently might speak up and claim one of the items. The basketball tickets went for $220 in a lively bidding war. The hockey tickets went for $150, and the stapler went for ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. And since one of the named partners offered to match the auction prices, the charity got $200. For a stapler.

Moral of the story? Pull more pranks. You might end up benefiting a charity.