WASHINGTON, Aug 11: They were tucked in tissues inside an envelope scanned with the rest of the President's mail: two silver forks, a knife and a teaspoon, all with the White House engraved on them.

A corporate guest pocketed the silverware at a power lunch in the west wing of the White House and foolishly bragged about it back at the office. His boss dressed him down and hastily mailed back the booty.

``He apologised. He said he was embarrassed that his employee had the nerve to remove the silverware,'' recalls Randy Baum, a White House dining room supervisor for US presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Guests are welcome to souvenir table menus, paper cocktail napkins printed with the great seal, place cards, after-dinner entertainment programmes, even photographs of themselves hobnobbing with the President.

An estimated 2,600 guests attended formal dinners at the White House last year alone, however, and in such a crowd a few just can't resist the urge to swipe a spoon, snatch a drapery tassel, pocket a tiny plate.

``Although the great majority of guests behave themselves, there's always somebody who just can't leave the White House without taking home a souvenir,'' Nancy Reagan wrote in her memoir. Back in the 1930s, Eleanor Roosevelt had to order new, larger-than-usual bread-and-butter plates because so many of her guests were sneaking the old ones into their pockets and handbags.

The temptation remains. On an overnight stay in the Lincoln bedroom, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown ventures, ``I took everything, everything that had White House on it.'' Actually, he swiped only some stationery and a photo he shot of himself with a disposable camera.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.