[ableal]

A theater company had this play where the heroine just barely manages to burn compromising letters in the fireplace before the villain comes into the room, reduced to snarling futilely "I smell burnt paper!".

One day the props department forgets to put the matches on the mantle, and the actress, to keep the play going, just tears up the letters and tosses them in the cold fireplace. The villain comes in and, with great presence of mind, snarls "I smell torn paper!"