According to Mail, in five years I have never used the word "the"

Question

I wish apple would concentrate on making applications that work, like Mail. I'm trying to find a message in which a client gives me Pantone numbers for a brochure. Thank you Mail and Apple for making me waste my time. It can't even find the word 'the'. I know I'm using the stupid find procedure correctly and I've rebuilt, changed file permissions, run Onyx, run Disc Warrior, read the manual and everything else. Apple just makes lousy programs. Eudora worked better.

Answer 1

Here's my problem:
I'm looking at a mailbox I devote to all replies from a particular printer. One of the 100-odd messages in the mailbox says something with the word "the" in it. But if I write the word "the" in the search box top left, select the mailbox name along the top to limit the search to that mailbox and press return, I get no results. Zero. Nada. South of Zot. Zilch. Same for other words in other mailboxes. I can copy a word from a message, and paste it into the find box at top right, and the results are equivalent to the esteem in which I currently hold Apple.
Thanks anyway.