PAWN-SHOP TRAGEDY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 5

PAWN-SHOP TRAGEDY

MISTAKEN VALUATION ON RING A tragi-comedy of low life in Budapest is reported Uy the “Pesti Hirlap. The protagonists are a tram-con-ductor named Andor Szauto, his wife, a meddlesome neighbour, and an employee in one of the State pawnshops, says the Budapest correspondent ot the London ‘.‘Observer.” Some time ago Szanto, wishing to give his wife an impressive birthday present, bought her a ring set with an artificial stone, for which he paid 06 pengo. Illness overtook tlieir chilu, and Mrs. Szapto was obliged to pawn the ring to pay for medicine and medical attendance. The valuer in the pawnshop offered her 100 pengo on it, and the woman’s astonishment was so great that she could only stammer that 50 pengo would be enough. Szanto and his wife and the neighbour discussed the matter, and came to the conclusion that by some incredible turn of fortune’s wheel the ring was worth 10 or 20 times wliat they had paid for it, and that they had only to sell it to realise comparative affluence. Next morning the ring was taken out of pawn and offered to a succession of jewellers, who each of them offered to buy it for 15 pengo. The Szantos and the neighbour now agreed that; the ring had been changed during the night, and, hastening back to the pawnshop, they demanded the original one. , The valuer Inspected the ring for a second time and realised, to his horror, that he had mistaken a poor imitation for a genuine stone on the previous clay. Convinced that if his mistake became known he would lose his employment, he offered to buy the ring outright for 100 pengo. The Szantos refused to sell, even when the valuer, In his alarm, raised his offer to 500 pengo. More convinced that ever of the value of the ring, the Szantos denounced the valuer to the police for theft. When the case came into court the employee established his innocence with ease, and entered a counter-petition for false accusation. The case has now been passed through three law courts, and the conclusion finds Szanto condemned to pay for his credulity with one and a-half years’ imprisonment