def find_one(cls, *args, **kwargs):
        """Like `find()` except ensure that only one result is returned."""
        # ensure that maximum is supplied so that a big query is not happening
        # behind the scenes
        if 'maximum' not in kwargs:
            kwargs['maximum'] = 1

        try:
            # call find and extract the first iterated value from the result
            iterable = iter(cls.find(*args, **kwargs))
            return next(iterable)
        except StopIteration:
            # no result was found
            return None
Like `find()` except ensure that only one result is returned.