The collection of Buddhist Amulets in Thailand is big business. Most Thais have one or two slung round their necks or tucked away in drawers or adorning a Buddhist shrine at home. Thais believe overwhelmingly that these amulets bring good luck and that is why they adorn the dashboards of many vehicles in the knowledge that even though they can't drive for toffee Buddha will look out for them and their trusty steeds.
Some people go a little overboard in the hunt for good luck and have collections of hundreds if not thousands of these amulets with pictures of revered monks from far flung temples.
Khun Suwat a 57 year old Pattaya businessman was one of these keen collectors. However his luck ran out big time when the collection of Buddhist amulets he amassed from a chain of linked amulet dealers turned out to be fake.
He spent over a million Baht on the amulets from two dealers in Jomtien and Pattaya. He took them for appraisal in Bangkok and was gutted to find that his million Baht investment was worth a mere 50,000 Baht.
He made a report to Pattaya Police. He had been guaranteed that a full refund would be made if any of the amulets proved not to be genuine. The Police followed up on the holy dealers only to find that they had dome a holy runner, shut up shop and disappeared to another province in their quest for the holy mark.
