Items can be deleted from inventory accidentally

I was playing on my server and was about to craft a chest. i had the 8 wood planks picked up out of my inventory like i was moving them to the crafting table so they were not in a inventory slot, but not entities in the world. i had to leave suddenly so i force quit and when i logged back on, they were gone. i was lucky it was just planks nut if this happened with diamonds, i would be devastated..