Man from U.N.C.L.E. Section VII

I once read a story that basically contained all the elements of a story I'd written a couple of years earlier. It was literally as if the two of us had been given a relatively detailed plot outline and had written our two interpretations of it. I was irritated at first, then, on thinking, had to admit that the elements themselves could have been come up with independently (or that the other writer had read my story and the elements were floating in her subconscious, as can happen to anyone). There was no obvious plagiarism.

Besides, mine was better. :-)