Blame It on the Mercury

Dinesh Verma, Owner, Verma Sons Jewellers, Solan

One of our regular clients once brought along a friend who bought gold jewellery from us. After a fortnight or so, they returned with the jewellery. The gold jewellery had turned white. They complained that we had sold them impure gold jewellery and demanded their money back. I checked the jewellery and immediately saw that it had some deposit on it. On asking them, they revealed that they had put the jewellery in a bag which also had a thermometer. The thermometer had broken and the mercury had covered the jewellery. So, when mercury reacted with gold, it turned it white. However, when I tried to explain this to the client, they didn’t believe it. They insisted that there was problem in the quality of gold we sold. So, in order to put across my point, I slightly burnt the jewellery. The mercury evaporated, leaving behind the golden colour. On seeing this, the clients were convinced and accepted that the mercury from thermometer had spoilt the jewellery. After this they continued to be our client.