The bulb`s gone

In Holland during the seventeenth sentury, tulip bulbs became so valuable that fortunes were spent in buying them.

In one extraordinary incident a rich merchant - and notaable collector of tulips - recieved news from a sailor that his cargo of Levantine goods had arrived at the docks. The merchant welcomed the sailor into his counting-house, where there were piles of good of all kinds,  and rewarded him for his good news with a large red herring for his breakfast. The sailor thanked the merchant and, seeing what he assumed to be a discarded onion lying in the counter, took it and set off to eat his breakfast in the fresh air. Unfortunatly, of course, the onion was not an onion at all but a fantasdtical valuable Semper Augustus tulpin bulb worth 3000 florins. The merchant at once noticed that his price was missing and instigated a frantic search, but not to avail. Then he rememberd the sailor and assumed that he must have stolen the bulb. The merchant set up a hue and cry bit it was all too late. By the time they found the sailor, seated on a pile of ropes down by the quayside, he had eaten the ´onion`. In spite of his protestation of innocence the sailor was charged with stealing the tulpin and was thrown into gaol.