"...a thief broke into the vehicle and pinched it."
"The Sun reader found the dossier along with the soldier’s MoD ID card and gym shorts, shirt and trainers. ...he said: “I found the bag just lying in the ditch by the side of the road as I was passing by."
Knowing the Sun, two questions pop into my mind: a) how much did they pay him for this document (i.e. not to take it to another newspaper) and b) what are the chances that the passer-by and the thief are the same man?
Just speculation. But it is the Sun...
Just a little bit more than what any of the other papers would have paid. Market forces, after all.
b) what are the chances that the passer-by and the thief are the same man?
Probably about the same chances as the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Masons and the Bilderburgers all meet together to orchestrate and micromanage all major world events.
Sorry, just pulling your leg :-)
Seriously though, it's possible although I've found that usually the true answer to most questions is the simplest one. Occam's Razor, you know. It's perfectly plausible that the thief just chose the Major's car at random, smashed the window, grabbed the bag thinking that there might be money or something saleable in it to buy drugs. Upon finding no wallet and no obvious valuables the thief just tossed the bag and went on to break into a different car. He was probably accustomed to being handled by the police and certainly didn't want to have evidence to a crime in his possession It was probably a junkie who could barely read to begin with and certainly couldn't understand the significance of what was in the file. Yes, the thief could have brought it to the Sun and then the Sun could have made up the quotes that they attribute to the 'reader' but whichever way it was, it doesn't change the relevance of the story itself or it's significance in any way. The Sun's writers could also have stalked the Major, followed him around and broken into the car when he had it parked and was in a store shopping. It could also have been a twenty-second level Mason who did it because a twenty-third level Mason told him that the Major was destined to do something in the future that would upset the Master Plan, and the Major needed to be discredited so that he would no longer be a threat. I could go on and on with this but the end result would all be the same.