This was told as a true story. On the day that the oversized household refuse was collected in Alphen aan de Rijn, there was always a man on a carrier tricycle riding ahead of the dustcart to see if there was anything usable left on the pavement.

Around the same time, a postman had to deliver some letters in a block of flats. He parked his bicycle along the curb and entered the building. At that moment the man with the carrier tricycle arrived at the scene.

He took a look at the bicycle. What a ramshackle old thing, he thought to himself, but the wheels seemed usable enough. In a jiffy, he removed the wheels from the bike, put them on the luggage carrier of his tricycle, and rode off.

When the postman reappeared from the block of flats, he was shocked to see only the frame of his bike left at the curb. Lucky for him, there was a woman standing on the balcony in a block of flats nearby, who had seen everything. She called to the postman what had happened and gestured in which direction the man with the tricycle had gone.

The postman started running, and a few streets farther on, he overtook the man with the carrier tricycle. In high tones, he demanded his bicycle wheels back.

Soon after, the postman walked back to his bike with a wheel in each hand. Unfortunately the frame had in the meantime been collected by the garbage men.