Jewelry Swindles

For the well-trained rogue, jewelry swindles can be both the most lucrative and the easiest, because it is so difficult for the untrained eye to identify or to judge the value of a precious stone. Besides dealing in paste and glass fakes, jewelry swindlers may pass off a lesser stone as something more valuable (e.g., quartz for diamond), or pay someone (especially naive but treasure-laden adventurers) for a diamond as if it were quartz. A nimble-fingered rogue may also replace fake jewels for real ones, and the owner may never know the difference!

Sly NPC jewel swindlers are a great way for DMs to relieve characters lacking gem cutting proficiency of their cash and jewels (provided they don't spew out at the start, "The dragon's treasure includes 12 opals at 1,000 gp each").

"How much d'I owe ya?" asked the old rogue, upon finishing ale and tale.

"Four coppers," said the bartender.

The rogue fished in his pockets. "Hmm," he said. "All I have is this gold piece. Have ya got change?"

"Believe I do," said the bartender, taking the gold coin and putting out an electrum coin, four silvers, and six coppers in change.

"Say, why don't you get me a slab of cheese for the road?" asked the rogue, sliding over two coppers for it.

While the bartender retrieved the cheese from beneath the counter, the rogue opened his pouch to put the remaining coppers inside. "Well look here! Guess I had a silver after all!" he declared. He moved his hand toward the others, palming his new-found silver and hiding the electrum beneath the other coins, while appearing just to set the new silver coin with the rest. "Say," he tells the bartender. "I'd be hatin' to take all yer change like that. Why dontcha gimme an electrum for these five silvers?"

"Sure," said the bartender, handing him an electrum. The old rogue turned toward the door. "Wait!" said the bartender. "Ye left an electrum coin here with the silver!"

"So I did! Thank you. Honesty's a difficult quality to find these days! Well, to keep you with enough change, why don't I just give you this silver"—he then produced the coin he had palmed—"and you give me back the gold piece?"

"All right," said the bartender. "Have a nice day, then!"

As he walked down the street from the tavern, five silvers richer, the old rogue permitted himself a grin and a little skip of delight. All these years, and Cool Willie hadn't lost his touch.

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