A certain English man married a Malaysian woman, and she moved to England to live with him. She took most of her treasured possessions with her. Some of the very valuable items were pieces of Malay jewelry fashioned in the finest Malay gold. She kept these jewelry pieces in a small trinket box.

One night the couple went out for the evening. When they returned they discovered their house had been burgled. Everything was in a terrible mess! Within a short time of their return it became apparent that a large number of items of both material and sentimental value had been stolen. The distraught couple ran upstairs, the wife in particular running to the bedroom where her trinket box was kept in the top drawer of her dressing table.

To their astonishment, the box lay where it had been left. The lid was open but the jewelry remained inside. Neither of them could understand why the thieves had left what were clearly the most valuable items of jewelry. They thought, perhaps the thieves had been disturbed and fled in a hurry.

Sometime later, the thieves were apprehended and the police officer in charge, who had been similarly puzzled asked one of the gang why they had not taken the items in the trinket box. Apparently, the thieves had taken one look at the Malaysian gold and thought it to be tasteless imitation jewelry which would not have fetched a good price, if they tried to sell it. A question of taste, I guess!

Note: Gold produced in Malaysia and elsewhere in Asia is more refined than the gold produced in Europe and the United States. It is much brighter and glistens more. Where 14kt and 18kt gold is used in making jewelry in the West, 22kt and 24kt is used in the East. Martin Sumpton told me this true story.

top