The context is a situation where I've been looking for my keys for the last a couple of minutes. First, I check the pockets of my trousers, then I check the drawers. When I was checking the drawers the thought “the keys might be on the desk” comes to my mind. Just after this thought comes my friend informs me that “The keys might be on the desk” Then, I reply to him: “I've just thought the same thing”.
I asked similar questions here before but please allow me to clarify a specific contextual tense usage that is confusing me.
A native Australian English speaker told me that using present perfect (I've just thought the same thing) is wrong in this context and that a native English speaker would always use past perfect tense idiomatically and say "I'd just thought the same thing" or "I'd just thought that".
His point is that in this context my friend's information instinctively causes me to think once again that the keys might be on the desk, therefore the thought that comes to my mind before my friend's information isn't relevant any more with the present.
On the other hand, my argument is my friend doesn’t cause me to think again. If he hadn’t said “The keys might be on the desk” I would maybe have started searching for them on the desk just after finishing searching for them in the drawer. Therefore, I had already thought the keys might be on the desk regardless of my friend’s information.
Is this true? Would native speakers never prefer to use the present perfect here and always use the past perfect? I was even told that the simple past (I just thought the same thing or I just thought that) wouldn't be preferred by a native English speaker.
