I gaslit my college library out of late fees by returning my own books

Back in college (00’s) one semester I took out a bunch of books for retrenching a big project. This was back when internet research was not admissible and you needed to properly site all your sources.
School & life got away from me and I forgot to return the books and kinda forgot about them. That was until the end of the semester when I got the late library dues bill in the mail. I think the fees were like 25 cents per book per day, and I had at least 10 books over a month late! I didn’t have any money, and if you didn’t pay your library fines you could not get your grades/transcript for the semester.

Instead of sheepishly returning the books and paying the fines, I put the books in my backpack and returned them all to their correct places on the shelves. I then called the library the next day and questioned the validity of the letter regarding my overdue books.
The librarian left me on hold for a few minutes and returned to the phone apologizing to me that it seemed the books had in fact been returned!

Library dues were erased and they didn’t hold back my transcript!