We still have a couple of Prussian blue, rectangular, plastic snack tray/plate objets on which chese and biscuits were served in the dining car of the overnight sleeper train from Barcelona to Cadiz, the best part of 20 years ago.

I don't think there were technically stolen, as I suspect they would have been discarded. Which would have been absolutely criminal, since they have, as stated, lasted over 20 years, pressed into daily service for toasted sandwiches and other snacks.

They are just the right size and shape to fit in a free corner of my home office desk when I take a break from work, have a bite to eat and post wistful anecdotes to Medium.

We originally had four (two per leg of the return journey), but two were tragically misshapen, like the Nazis' faces at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, by the overzealous drying cycle of the (coincidentally German) dishwasher in a flat we once rented.

The sleeper train has long since gone - made obsolete by Spain's new high-speed rail network - but half of the borrowed snack plates journey happily on with their foster family.