Post-script: I had a pronounced sense of guilt at the destruction of my Grandad's top-hat; or rather, following-on from my father's discovery of the foul deed....so, when many, many years later, and after the death of my father, I met an elderly gentleman who, it turned out, had been a 'hatter' - and an actual maker/repairier of top-hats......well, I had to do the decent thing, and ask him if he could repair the sorry object.
To cut a long story short: he did his best, and it looked almost as good as new....it showed a few creases on the inside, but the outside was almost perfect....well, it was certainly better than before! I didn't mind that it had cost me my 'beer-money' for a month; I was just pleased that I had gone some way to make things good. That night I locked-up the newly repaired hat in my office cupboard (he hat had been delivered to me at work etc.) rather than taking it home, until I had somewhere safe to put it.
The next morning, when I got to work, I was greeted by a splintered door, and a ransacked room. I'd been burgled! The cupboard door had been wrenched-off too, and Grandad's hat had gone!
Is there a moral to the story? Perhaps : no matter how sorry you are; or how much you spend in putting something to rights; it's still your fault for doing something wrong in the first place! Mind you, If I ever catch that burglar I'll be reminding him of that moral too! The only other thing taken was a large plastic paper-weight, in the shape of a potato, and a broken cassette-recorder...