A library patron discovered one word cut out of a book, and the missing text will make you say, “Huh?”

Some things are just strange, can’t be explained, and overall just make you go hmm, what, huh? Like, you literally can’t figure out how or why something happened. Recently, a strange occurrence of exactly that kind happened at a library in Ayer, Massachusetts, leaving the staff stumped. While libraries are normally associated with a pretty chill, educational experience, this incident felt like a murder mystery. But minus the murder part and involving a children’s book.

When a patron returned a book, they noted that a word had been cut out of one of the pages. Just one word. Meticulously missing.

How and why would someone do this? Well, the how seemed pretty clear — the person cut out the word. But why?

While you might ask yourself what type of monster would cut a word out of a book that isn’t theirs, the bigger question becomes WHAT WAS THE WORD??

This felt like a case straight out of Law & Order, if there was a L&O that solved life’s little mysteries. The library posted the only evidence they had.

They wrote, “…there it was. A perfectly neat cut, with care taken not to damage any other pages. And one word missing. You could feel the curiosity coursing through the Children’s Room.” The word in question was dialogue from the frog in the book.

The library continued on Facebook, “Who would do something like this, why would someone hurt a perfectly innocent library book. And most importantly, WHAT IS THE MISSING WORD?!?!”

Luckily, the case was solved pretty easily when the library retrieved another copy of the book from a local branch. The word in question was “Excellent.” So now we know the missing word, but the next question is why would anyone be opposed to the word excellent?

Some of the library’s Facebook commenters jokingly guessed that someone was putting together a ransom note or maybe a DIY kitchen magnet project.

We have so many questions. Guess the world may never know.