Hmm, good point. If you were expecting housekeeping to come clean your room and you left $200 on the desk, if I were the housekeper, I might assume that was my tip. Perhaps, they thought that the lottery tip was the tip.

Seriously though, my personal take is that there are certain items that most people have a reasonable expectation that should be "safe" in a hotel room, such as clothes and toiletries. However, hotel innkeeper laws in most states clearly state that the guest doesn't have a right to expect that "valuables" have that same expectation. That is the reason for in-room safes and safekeeping boxes at the front desk. I would never intentionally leave my wallet, my laptop, my i-pod, or a winning lottery ticket in my hotel room.

The food issue I really do think is a non-issue. There are varying opinions in this thread and I, of course, have a different take. I NEVER sleep in a room until the food is removed. If I don't feel like seeing it the next morning in the hallway, I call room service and ask them to come remove the tray from my room. Otherwise, I just sit it outside my door.