A Dog Chasing His Tail

I set out 12 paper cupcake liners and our muffin tin. I told James to put one liner in each cup. It took a while, but he did succeed to put one liner in each cup except for one. He did not realize there was one more paper liner on the floor behind him. After placing 11 liners in, he noticed one cup was empty. So, he picked up an already-placed liner and put it in the empty cup. Well, now there was another empty cup. So, he picked up another already-placed liner and put in in the empty cup. I think he moved around 8 liners before he gave up. It reminded me of a dog chasing his tail.