An inmate was saving a metal shank, mobile phones and a USB charger in HMP Nottingham for someone else over a drugs debt, a court heard.
Defendant Sean Fitzgerald was agitated and threw himself on his bed when prison officers turned up to search his cell when some of the items were discovered.
The shank (an improvised weapon) was taken from him, then he asked if he could take a shower and was allowed to go, Nottingham Crown Court was told.
Fitzgerald volunteered he had a mobile phone hidden in a pair of socks.
And on the way to the shower, he changed direction to the toilets where a SIM card fell from his mouth into a toilet.
More items were found in his cell - another mobile phone, USB charger and a metal tube.
At court, he pleaded guilty to possessing restricted articles in prison and unauthorised possession of an offensive weapon.
Judge Stuart Rafferty QC gave him 15 months for the weapon offence and concurrent sentences on the items found.
He said the sentence would start now after hearing Fitzgerald is serving time for dangerous driving and various other offences.
"If I thought for one moment that you had come into possession of those items voluntarily, you would be receiving a sentence consecutive to the sentence you are already serving," said the judge.
Fitzgerald, 27, had a drug debt and "were effectively given no choice than to save these items for someone else in a way the court is all too familiar with," added the judge.
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"Inevitably the rumour of that must have reached the prison authorities, because they were turning your cell over and finding them".
The court was told he was not the owner of the weapon and held the item for about a day.
In his basis of plea he said he felt himself at some physical risk - in particular being stabbed - something which was on his mind when he accepted to look after the weapon.
The court also heard he had difficulties with his mental health and he had been using Mamba.
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