Let's be clear on one thing right off the bat: I am not simple or naive. I am a professional, I speak multiple languages and I have a graduate degree.
However, when someone cold-called me from Shenzhen offering to share their buried treasure, I made multiple trips across the border to see for myself and came close to giving these people a lot of money.
I was sitting in the office last month when a stranger called from the mainland on my phone. He explained that he and his crew were doing some digging at a construction site and they had unearthed a tomb, containing treasure.
He said he had found three chests of gold and crates of priceless jade but he couldn't be sure of their authenticity. He wanted my help to bring the items to Hong Kong, have them checked by experts and to sell them in Hong Kong.
The story was just plausible enough. I knew tombs were uncovered from time to time, containing various bounty.
He said he could not go public with his find because he would run afoul of mainland law that describes such bounty as national treasure that, as such, belongs to the state. His request that I help him move the loot to Hong Kong to avoid this law was believable enough.
