Two decades ago, a Thai gardener climbed into the palace of a Saudi prince through a second-story window, busted open a safe with a screwdriver and stole some 200 pounds of jewelry. The former Saudi charg d’affaires in Bangkok told the Washington Post that the gardener stuffed “rubies the size of chicken eggs” in his vacuum-cleaner bag, along with a huge, nearly flawless blue diamond, which at 50 carats would be one of the largest blue diamonds in the world.
Or at least that’s how the story goes, according to the local Thai press and the old charg d’affaires. Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation , which is similar to the FBI, says it has no evidence to confirm the facts of the case — and doesn’t even know whether the blue stone that’s said to be larger than the Hope Diamond exists. What is certain is that the alleged theft eventually cost Thailand billions of dollars, left people dead in its wake and put an Elvis-impersonating Thai official on death row. More than 20 years later, the ripped-off Saudis still want their jewels back, and relations between the two governments remains strained.
