The Mystery of the Missing Toy Wheels

At 10:12 on Thursday morning, the Toy Truck Department ran out of wheels.

This was unusual.

Santa's Toy Factory keeps extra wheels.

Then it keeps extra wheels for the extra wheels.

Toy Builder Benny Buttons checked the supply shelf.

Empty.

He checked the storage room.

Empty.

He checked underneath his hat.

One wheel.

"Interesting," Benny said.

Soon, three Toy Factory elves were investigating.

They followed a trail of tiny wheel marks through the factory, around the wrapping station, past the cocoa cart, and into the Toy Inventor Lab.

There they discovered the answer.

Inventor Elf Moxie had been testing a new idea: a giant marble maze made entirely from toy wheels.

There were hundreds of them.

Moxie froze.

"I was going to put those back."

Benny looked at the enormous wheel maze.

Then he rolled one wheel through it.

It zipped around six corners, bounced through a tunnel, rang a bell, and landed in a bucket.

Benny grinned.

"After lunch."

The wheels were eventually returned.

The maze became Prototype #427.

And the Toy Factory added a new rule:

PLEASE ASK BEFORE BORROWING 600 WHEELS.

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