Okay, what the hell?Basically, the whole reason those coins were not stolen - despite her efforts - is because of the integrity of a human being. If she trusts that person so much (as is stated in the article), why not give those coins to him in the first place?Then again, how about just leaving those coins at home? There was no mention of a burglary while she was gone, so they were absolutely safe exactly where they were. No effort whatsoever was required on her part.Such a pattern is seen all the time: people wrongly assume something terrible will happen if they don't do placebo action X. Then, when nothing bad happens the person becomes convinced that placebo action X saved the day.But what would happen if the coins were stolen? No doubt, such an event would be twisted into some kind of reinforcement as well, e.g. "Mary must have thought I shouldn't care about money."