Book loaned from Canadian library returned after 82 years. Here’s how much late fee would’ve been charged

Cape Breton Regional Library shared information about the return of this copy of Hugh Lofting's The Adventures of Doctor Dolittle on its Instagram account.

If you're someone who often borrows books from libraries, then you know how important it is to return them on time. Usually, there is a late fee charge if you don't. Still, more so, there may be another individual waiting to indulge in the literary goodness that you've just had the honour of enjoying. Then, can you imagine returning a book 82 years later? That is what happened to a particular copy of Hugh Lofting's The Adventures of Doctor Dolittle from the Cape Breton Regional Library, based in Sydney, Canada. Somebody borrowed this book from the library in 1939, and the copy found its way back to the institution only recently. Here's how it all went down.

The image shows a copy of Hugh Lofting's The Adventures of Doctor Dolittle.(Instagram/@cbrlibrary)

Cape Breton Regional Library shared information about this odd occurrence on its Instagram account. The post shared on January 28, which consists of two images and some descriptive text, laid out what had happened. "A resident of Sydney recently made a surprising discovery in his home when he found a library book that was overdue... nearly 82 years overdue. Just one more reason to celebrate the elimination of overdue fees! Jordan Musycsyn found the book, 'The Adventures of Doctor Dolittle' by Hugh Lofting, hidden under insulation in his attic," reads a bit of the caption shared alongside the images.

Read what else the caption says here:

Since being shared on the photo and video sharing platform, this post has garnered many comments. Here's how netizens reacted to the share.

One person said, "Amazing". Another individual wrote, "Love this! What a piece of history". "What an awesome story! Love this!" read one comment under the share.

Though the library doesn't charge late fee anymore, the librarians calculated how much it would've been for this overdue item just for fun, reports UPI.com. "Assuming a charge of 15 cents a day, if we had charged a late fee, it would have amounted to about $3,000," Nicole MacGibbon from the Cape Breton Regional Library said.

What are your thoughts on this?