Where did they go?

Recently, I was preparing for a friend's birthday dinner for 16 -(which turned out quite nicely, I believe)  in doing so was attempting to set the table.  Now, it is not often that I set the table for 16 people, so it is not often that I need to retrieve all my silverware.  Knowing that I have silverware for 24, yes 24, I did not think setting a table for 16 would be a difficult task.
I opened up my silverware drawer grabbed the necessary utensils and proceeded to the table.  Much to my surprise I did not have enough.  Thinking no problem, they are probably in the dishwasher - I emptied the dishwasher and then begin to set the table.  Again,  still not enough.  Now I was not a math major in college but it does not take a genius to figure out that something has happened to a large amount of my silverware.
This missing silverware problem began many years ago around Christmastime.  I had my (rather large, in numbers) family over for dinner.  Using my best silver, you know the kind you only pull out once or twice a year, I set a very lovely table.  At the end of this meal and the clean up - I discovered that one of my silver spoons was missing.  I did think this strange but just determined that it was misplaced.  That was until the next family meal, and another spoon went missing, and then another, and then a knife.  Now I was becoming concerned.  Did I have a family member that was slowly increasing their silver collection, did we have a kleptomaniac in our midst, was this going to require an intervention?
Not having my house wired with cameras I was never able to identify the culprit.  So I just forgot about it until recently when clearly many of my utensils had disappeared.  But now it was not even the good stuff.  I mean silverware is not like socks.  We don't just take them off wherever we are to have them lost under the couch.  We use them in one place they must go in the sink when their job is complete - where do they go?
I contemplated this for about 2 hours, wondering what in the world has happened.  Does my dishwasher feed on cheap metal?  Do the ants carry them off to use as silver gods to bring them more sugary crumbs.  This was very perplexing.  I did not have time to contemplate this any further - I had a dinner to give and a party to complete - the mystery of the missing silverware would just have to wait.  Although I was going to have to use some of my good silver, which made me a little nervous in light of every time I let them out of their house they seemed to run away.
Party ended, dishes are cleaned up and as I began to put everything away I looked to the center of my everyday eating table, and discovered what you see in the picture.........
Sometimes trying to be efficient can be oh so perplexing!    Mystery solved - just remember where you put stuff.
Although I am still missing 3 good spoons and a knife - so if you are reading this and guilt has gotten the best of you just return them and no one will get hurt.  (Unfortunately I think they are a casualty of children doing dishes when they are used to using disposable and they have landed in a landfill somewhere)