The Wilds

This is an interesting anecdote that highlights an aspect of Japanese culture that I've yet to understand. For a bit of background information, Mel gave me a Maori talisman a long time ago. I wore it school one day, but the cord was too loose and it slipped from my neck without me noticing. I realized it about 15 minutes later and told Ms. Nakano. We began searching for it. After a while, I gave up figuring that one of the students had picked it up and kept it. No big deal. It was my fault for bringing it and for not keeping a better eye on it. Though I told my teacher it was no problem if we couldn't find it, she insisted that I must not have brought it to school, despite commenting on it that morning herself.
Flash forward to this Monday. I arrive at school and opened up the box that I put my street shoes in when I enter the school. I have used the same box the whole time I've been here (approaching 9 months) and have had no problems. On that day, I opened it up to discover that my school sandals (which I brought from America) were missing and someone else's sandals were there instead. To check to see if they had been moved, I opened up all the other boxes, but they were nowhere to be found. I went in and asked Ms. Nakano if she knew where they had been moved to and she asked the other staff. No one seemed to know. I checked around a bit more and then the maintenance man insisted that we check the boxes again. At this point, I arrived at two possible conclusions:
1) A student had swiped my sandals from the box
2) Some teacher had moved my slippers out of the box and then they had been swiped
3) My shoes disintegrated of their own accord
There really wasn't another possibility because I always switch from my slippers straight to my shoes and vice versa and I never walk around without them. I had them the week before, so they had only been missing for a week or less. Anyway, I had another identical pair at home, so I wasn't really worried. I told Ms. Nakano and everybody else that I would bring the new pair tomorrow, so no problems. The vice-principal told me that I should order some new ones online and that the school would pay for it. I refused because if we did that and then found the slippers later on, that would be a big hassle for the school. Anyway, I had another pair.
I thought that was that. But three hours later, during one of my classes with Ms. Hiramoto, Ms. Nakano came in and told me that the vice-principal (heretofore thought of as a rational lady) wanted me to know that WILD DOGS had snatched my shoes. I serirously had to gulp down a cackle because I realized she was serious. So I nodded solemnly and said, "I see." Later, when I went down to the staff room, the vice-principal personally told me this and was supported by another teacher who said that her shoes were also nabbed by wild dogs.
Now, this isn't a very believable story for several reasons. One, I've never seen a wild dog in Japan, or even an un-leashed dog - unlike Taiwan, which is literally riddled with feral dogs. Second, the shoes were closed in a box that would be nearly impossible for a dog to open without a slimjim or some such instrument. Now, mind you, I hadn't made a fuss about the shoes and I had never suggested (out loud) that a student had stolen my slippers. But the just the idea that I might think that had caused them to suggest this highly unbelievable thing. I don't doubt the teacher who told me her shoes had been stolen, because I'm sure that that is what they told her too. I'm just not sure why they felt the need for the facade. It was the same thing when my bike was stolen. One of the teachers suggested that Russians had stolen my bike and sent it to Russia to be sold on the black market. Of course, it couldn't be mischievous Japanese teenagers (the likely culprit, considering I later found my bike outside an arcade in town) - nope, it was the evil foreign Russian mafia.
I'm not sure if the image their portraying is better though. Which sounds better? Japan: wild dogs, Russian mafia, and disinegrating necklaces OR Japan: a few bad kids. I'll let you be the judge.