groovy - Grails Domain Object hasMany irregular behaviour using contains -

i'm having issue calling .contains() on 1 of domain classes' hasmany relationships not doing same when running normally, or when debugging. situation follows:

i have 2 domain objects, a , b. a has hasmany relationship b.

class {     ...     static hasmany = [bees: b]     ... } 

now, during execution of 1 of filters, grab current user spring security service. user contains single instance of b. filter should check if instance of b in user contained in instance of a.

assume instances of b referring same object (since are).

now, issue arises. calling:

if (instanceofa.bees.contains(user.instanceofb)) {     println 'success' } else {     println 'failure' } 

prints failure during normal (or debugging without stepping through code) execution. however, if put break-point there, , step through code, correctly executes contains() , prints success.

i have implemented equals, hashcode , compareto in attempt resolve this, same behaviour.

this due lazyloading or cache. use instanceofa.bees.id.contains(user.instanceofb.id) , works.