How NOT to pay for your lost library book

Wyatt came home with a note on Monday saying that he still has a book out at the library.  I asked him to go look for it, but he never did.  I followed up with him later in the afternoon and he was going to look for it a little bit.  He NEVER went to look for it and that was the last on heard.

..... UNTIL .....

Wednesday afternoon when I receive this email from Wyatt's 1st grade teacher:

Hi Erika,

Wyatt is upset he can’t check out a library book and is working hard to problem solve the issue.    The book he owes is Let’s Mix.  It costs $6.00 if it is lost.  He asked me if I could take the money from his lunch money account on Tuesday and brought in gift cards today to pay for it.  I told him to put the gift cards in his backpack and told him that I was sorry that the gift cards weren’t for the library. 

Now let me add to this.  The gift cards he brought in were cards that my kids took from the cash register counter at the Goodwill Store and pocketed without me noticing.  None of the cards have any money on them since they are STOLEN. Normally I catch my people doing this, but apparently missed this one.  (Just another perk to taking 4 short people to the store with you.)

Now put yourself in the teachers shoes with this child giving her Goodwill gift cards to pay his library fees.  You can just imagine what was going through her head.  

Conclusion: Wyatt spent 3 days thinking of solutions to "how not to look for my lost library book".  I'll give him resourceful, but add LAZY to it.

My question really is: Wouldn't it of been easier to just look for the lost book????