Many years ago, having just returned from a buying trip to Bangkok, I
was surveying and sorting my purchases. I was working in a room with
built-in desks and vinyl tile floors with coved edges, which had been
designed to allow for finding the gems which inevitably wound up on
the floor.
A TWO CARAT ruby (a sizeable stone, yes?) popped out of my tweezers,
It went towards me and I FELT it hit my tie. It HAD to have bounced
onto the desk! It hadn’t. It HAD to be on the floor near me. It
wasn’t. I checked my cuffs; my pockets, loosened my belt and checked
my waistband.
Five people assumed the jewelers’ position and searched every inch of
the floor for half an hour (it was an EXPENSIVE ruby, and we were NOT
going to give up!) We gave up.
When I was leaving for the day, hours later, I opened my desk drawer
and found the ruby, table down, on the top front edge of the drawer
front; and LAUGHING AT ME! (I have witnesses!)
The ruby was approx. 6 x 9mm oval and 4mm deep. The ‘crack’ between
the drawer and the desk was about 3mm. If you sat in front of it and
TRIED to get a stone into that space, you couldn’t do it in 200
years. But that evil stone had wiggled into that opening and sat
there, laughing at me for hours…
I got even. I mounted and sold it.
David, Lord of the Rings I apologize for telling the tale twice.