When I was in Europe several years ago, we were climbing this peak. About 10 other people and me put down our poles in an area we switched to ice axes. (No we were not all one group, but all climbing the same mountain). There was this Zermatt guide and his Japanese client too...
Anyway, we came back down and found only my partners poles gone. We were ticked off.
So we get back to the restaurant which is the starting point of the hike to the climb, and we find the Japanese dude with my partners poles.
So we ask him what he the hell he was doing with my partners poles, and he said in bad English, "They were lying there, so I took them."