[Jewelry making - Article 00292] - [Orchid] Double Standards

[hans]

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    Ok, So this couple walks into my shop and the guy selects an
    expensive ring to buy for his daughter. Anne, my wife, is helping the
    dude. His girlfriend walks over to me in the workshop and asks if I
    won't please straighten out her platinum ring. She bent it the
    previous day sailing in a regatta. 

    It is set with color E diamonds and a 2.5carat flawless Alexandrite,
    she says. 

    My ears do the Bat Fox bit. I have cut stones since I was 16 years
    old and I am 51 now. I have seen some things, but never a 2.5 carat
    flawless Alexandrite. 

    "Give it to me" says I... and I sigh as I look at it. 

    She mistakes my sigh for wonderment, and warbles on about how
    beautiful it is, how here ex, who is a jeweller, searched for it for
    years and how many, many other jewellers had wanted to buy it off her
    for cash and what a stunning colour change it has, blah blah, blah.
    And all the time, I am looking at a surface treated Topaz. A
    'Caribbean Topaz'. A rainbow topaz. A piece of unadulterated dogpile,
    set in a well made platinum setting with two excellent .50ct princess
    cut diamonds. 

    What do you say? 

    If I tell her the truth, she might totally freak out. (this has
    happened to me before when a husband told his wife it was a diamond
    and I said it was a Cubic Zirconia, which it was.) Also, I might
    lose the sale her current boyfriend is doing with Anne. I figure
    bucks come first. 

    She asks me, "So what do you think"? (of the stone) 

    I say, "You know what I think? I think this ring should be
    straightened out" 

    Me, the friggin' politician with weasel words. 

    "I know it is worth a lot of money and I shouldn't sail with it.
    It's pretty much irreplaceable, isn't it?" 

    "It is very difficult to replace sentimental jewellery", says I,
    doing the running for re-election thing. 

    The upshot is I kept quite, did the sale, straightened out her ring
    free of charge, and sent them on their way. 

    After some thought, I think that was the correct path of least
    resistance, albeit not the most morally right one. 

    Fact is, when some other jeweller tells her the truth one day I'll
    just look like the Palooka that didn't know his stones. 

    That's much better than an angry woman in my shop, not so? 

Cheers Hans Meevis
http://www.meevis.com
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