Useless items getting use

[KindOfGoodGuy]

Have any of you guys randomly thrown an item at the party as loot for no reason but to be a piece of misc. junk, but have the party find a great use for it?

My example here is that I gave the party a magical bucket that will flip itself back up after being put upside down. Sounds useless right? Well they decided to take said bucket and slam it onto the head of the cultist at the end of the crypt they were exploring. The result was the party learning that they now have a portible guillotine.

Do you guys have any examples of times this kind of thing happened?

[Skysaber]

I'd thought to bait the party by dropping a truly magnificent magic sword on them while they were killing a tribe of kobolds - the trick was that the sword was made by kobolds, was an intelligent item with a truly horrific ego, and had the special purpose of advancing the cause of the kobold race.

I figured they'd pick it up, someone would try to use it, get controlled by its ego, and they'd have to defeat their friend without killing him, then sell or destroy the sword. Right?

Wrong. In the party they had a Paladin of Freedom, immune to magic compulsions - like the ego of magic swords. He wielded that sword for the entire rest of that campaign, gleeful over it shrieking as it was used to destroy its beloved kobold masters.

[KindOfGoodGuy]

Hahaha! I think I can hear voice screaming at the paladin. Now that is a sight I wish I could have seen!