Thai Temple Souvenir Causes A Run Of Bad Luck

[KeyserXSoze]

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8022514%255E1702,00.html

Tourist has bad luck after theft
From correspondents in Bangkok
30nov03
A GERMAN tourist has returned a sliver of glass he filched from a revered Thai temple in the hope of ending a run of bad luck that has plagued him since taking it, reports here said today.

Chakarat Chitrabongs, the Thai Ministry of Culture's top bureaucrat, told the mass circulation Thai Rath newspaper that the tourist had sent the glass shard along with a letter of apology to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The tourist, who signed his name as Juergen Z, reportedly wrote that he had found a tiny glass tile chipped off a wall in Bangkok's Wat Phra Kaew, or Temple of the Emerald Buddha, while visiting it two or three years ago.

He pocketed the tile after his tour guide told him he could take it home as a souvenir, Chakarat told the Thai-language newspaper.

"Whether I have been cursed or not, I don't know, but something supernatural has been occurring ... and I have faced only bad luck, both in my personal and work life," the letter said according to the daily.

"So I am sending this tiny piece of glass back to you with this letter, and I will send money to donate to the temple to apologise and try to get rid of my bad luck," he wrote.

The 221-year-old temple is a popular stop on the itineraries of many foreign tourists visiting the Thai capital.

 

[OneWingedBird]

In Whitby museum in North Yorkshire there used to be a Buddah statue that always had one hand held out with small coins in it, a sign next to it read:

"It is considered unlucky to steal coins from the hand of the idol. It is considered even more unlucky if you are caught doing it."

Can't remember what it's country of origin was, or if that was a native legend or just something the museum made up to add interest.