Oh no!

Oh no! A dastardly fellow has been rummaging through all of our entries and stolen something very important! Oddly enough, however, most of the entries seem to be fine… hmm.

Can you help us solve this intriguing mystery? Our only hint is this enigmatic message left by an anonymous well-wisher: “One of these entries is an example of what has been stolen. To make that entry fit, you must remove what has been taken from this puzzle (but is also ubiquitous in this puzzle).”

What could this mean?? There’s only one way to find out!

solve online / PDF

If you have solved the mystery, enter what was stolen (plural, all lowercase) here to expose the culprit!

(A big thank you to juff and skalds for test solving this buzzle and having tons of useful advice!!)