This article argues that some gifts go beyond the classic Maussian theory by being out of time or excessively delayed, somewhat parasitic. It shows that reciprocity is not an easily achieved, almost automatic idea; particularly when dealing with gifts that were abandoned, decommissioned or left in the dark, such as the things kept in basements or an old Soviet library. This research hinges on the idea that not all gifts generate immediate or expected relational exchanges. It is based on the experience of curating an exhibition, Ex Libris, which took inspiration from the library left behind in the former School n.1 of Sillamäe – an overdue gift in which the giver (the Soviet Union) is not present anymore and the gift has been losing its concreteness and connection to the present. This case problematises the traditional sense of what a gift is and does by showing how the belated actualisation of an interrupted exchange is experienced as parasitical and disruptive.