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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8064134, member: 128351&quot;]All these stories remind me of Luke 15:8-10. </p><p><br /></p><p>Here is mine</p><p><br /></p><p>I live south of Paris, not far from Fontainebleau. One day, while all the family was at work or at school, a burglar came and snatched my wife&#039;s few jewels and my ancient coin collection. The entire collection, the damned bastard. I filed a complaint at the police and I also went to the nearest coin dealer to show him photographs of some coins, in case somebody would try to sell them to him. He told me he didn&#039;t need photos, but that I should just write down a list of the principal stolen coins, and he would send it to an alert-chain for all professional dealers of France, Belgium and Switzerland. So did I.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some time after, maybe a month or two, I had a call from the dealer, telling me my coins had been sold to another dealer in Paris and had been secured by the police at the 36, Quai des Orfèvres. Whow, this address is a legend in France, mentioned in every crime novel or film noir, it is the headquarters of the Police Judiciaire just next to Notre-Dame. I called them and they told me to come recognize my coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>I went there. It was exactly like in the movies, small dilapidated offices full of officers wearing holsters under their jackets. It had not changed much since the early 1950s (they recently moved to a modern building). </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1397938[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>They brought me a box full of my coins and told me to take my time and check them one by one. I recognized all my coins except for one: a Julia Domna denarius that was not mine, while a Faustina II denarius was missing. Obviously a substitution. They insisted: Are you sure this coin is not yours? Maybe it was a kind of test to verify I told the truth, I don&#039;t know.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then, they told me to wait a little, there was at this very moment a team watching the burglar&#039;s home and they were ready to break in for an arrest. They wanted me to go with them, so I could perhaps recognize there other stolen objects, like necklaces or rings. I was so excited. But unfortunately the cops on the spot called later to say the guy was absent, so the arrest was canceled and I came back home with my collection (minus the Faustina II denarius). </p><p><br /></p><p>The burglar was not caught because he had fled to a foreign country with which there is no extradition agreement. I went to his trial in absentia, he was condemned, so he could not come back to France for decades. The ancient Greeks said exile was worse than death, after all...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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