Fear of Curse: Tourist Returns Stones to Bombay

“I didn't know about the curse. “I didn't know not to take stones with me,” wrote an unknown tourist who visited the historic Italian city of Pompeii in a note. “In a year I got breast cancer. I was a young and healthy woman, and it was just ' Bad luck,' the doctors said.” The envelope containing this letter also contained three small stones. “Please accept my apologies and these pieces.”

Gabrielzuchtriegel, an archaeologist working in Bombay, opened the package and released its contents to X. He also wrote in English: “Dear Anonymous Sender… Crystal stones have arrived in Bombay. Now good luck and boca al lupo, as they say in Italy.”

The post continues to be widely shared and commented on. Most comments wish luck to the stranger, but another explains that such a “curse” is also known in Hawaii: “People believe that there is a similar curse on the rocks of the volcanoes in Hawaii. But in reality, it is illegal to take anything from the national park, so tour guides and park rangers use the curse to prevent people from taking souvenirs.” found.”

However, many believe in supernatural events as a curse. When the Daily Mail wrote about the case, it contacted Deb, a female teacher from Pennsylvania, USA, who said the same thing had happened to her: when she was in Bombay in 2011, she took home two stones. . After a while, she got divorced and after a while she got cancer.

One day she saw a program on television about a “cursed” doll that brought bad luck to all its owners, and remembered the stones. She sent them back to Bombay. Over the next five years, things continued to improve.

The ancient city of Pompeii, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, is one of Italy's most visited attractions for its well-preserved ruins and evidence of the lifestyle of the time. She has to fight with a lot of tourists who have stolen the goods there. Many of the stolen relics have now been returned with letters of apology and a museum has been set up in Bombay to display them. Gabrielzuchtriegel says he has received hundreds of letters of apology from tourists who stole artifacts from the ancient site, many of which cited a “curse.”