The Blue Diamond case started as a simple jewellery theft, but led to a series of murders and the end of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
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The Blue Diamond case: the theft
At the time, it must have seemed like the perfect plan.
He was an unassuming Thai gardener who worked for a wealthy Saudi prince, who had more than his share of fine jewellery.
Kriangkrai Techamong had access, audacity and an exit strategy.
Prince Faisal bin Fahd would certainly not notice a few missing pieces - and by "a few pieces", Kriangkrai had his eye on about $20 million worth of jewellery.
The Blue Diamond case, as it has been dubbed, is now a case of legend, a heist too crazy even for the silver screen and one that would set a new standard for "get rich quick" schemes.
Kriangkrai was initially successful, although his plan was to flee to his home country, so it is not as if he expected to escape suspicion completely.
But once back in Thailand, things started to go wrong.
For more than two decades, the fallout from the case has been raging.
In the aftermath of the robbery, the cast of characters expanded to include Thai officials, murdered Saudi investigators and a major diplomatic rift between the two countries.
In the end, virtually none of the players faced serious consequences and much of the original loot - including a rare 50-carat blue diamond that would be even bigger than the infamous Hope Diamon - is still missing.
It all started in 1989 on the grounds of a palace in Riyadh.
Kriangkrai was certainly not the first employee to dream of a workplace windfall, nor the first to dream of correcting the great economic disparity between employer and employee.
But he is the only one who has turned these visions into reality - or at least tried to do so - in such a spectacular way.
One evening, under cover of darkness, the gardener put his plan into action.
He climbed the outside wall of the palace, broke in through a second floor window and stole 90 kilos of jewellery from the family safe.
Although the exact details of the robbery have never been revealed, some accounts claim that he made off with his loot by filling a hoover bag and rolling it outside.
(He would not have looked out of place if he had been spotted; Kriangkrai sometimes acted as a caretaker in the palace).
He had amassed a haul that included not only the famous Blue Diamond, but also a $2 million sapphire necklace, a rare green diamond necklace, multiple gold watches and, according to the Washington Post, "rubies the size of chicken eggs".
He managed to smuggle the loot out of the palace, and wasted no time in moving it away from the scene of the crime.
He shipped the loot back to Thailand by DHL and followed it on its way shortly afterwards.
The arrest of Kriangkrai Techamong
It didn't take long for the theft to be discovered, and when it was, the culprit was quickly found out.
The Saudis contacted the Thai authorities who arrested Kriangkrai.
But he no longer had the jewellery.
When he arrived home, Kriangkrai had sold his loot - for much less than it was worth - to a jeweller named Santhi Sithanakan.
In exchange for a reduced sentence, he quickly gave up the name of his dealer.
Kriangkrai Techamong, the gardener
In most cases of successful robberies, this is where the story ends.
The perpetrators are arrested, the stolen goods are recovered and life returns to normal.
But this is the blue diamond case, where nothing follows its plan.
The blue diamond affair: the authorities' swindle
The Thai authorities have recovered the missing Saudi treasure and returned it to its rightful owner.
But when the jewels were back in the palace, the Saudis started to examine them and realised that there was something wrong.
They determined that up to 80 % of the "valuables" were fakes, replaced by bad replicas.
Thailand is an expert country in jewellery making, they have techniques to transform stones and give them more value.
Most of the gems from Africa are sent to Thailand before they are put on the market.
As the Saudis discovered that their precious jewels were worthless, the wives of senior Thai officials began appearing at events around the country with glittering new accessories that looked suspiciously like Prince Faisal's jewels.
It was too blatant an insult for the Saudis to ignore. They decided to send a group of emissaries to Thailand to try to get to the bottom of it.
On 1 February 1990, three of the newly arrived Saudi diplomats were murdered in Bangkok in suspicious circumstances.
Later that month, the fourth representative, a Saudi businessman, disappeared and is presumed to have suffered the same fate.
Like most of the twists and turns in the Blue Diamond case, the truth about these murders was never discovered.
The Saudis claim that Thai police officers involved in the robbery are responsible for the deaths.
It is not clear whether this was really the case - a classified US cable sent in 2010 suggested that the murders may have been committed by Hezbollah - but that does not mean that the Thai authorities were innocent.
"In 1994, the jeweller Santhi, who was a key witness in the case because he could name the buyers, was abducted for three days.
In the same year, his wife and son were found dead in a car.
"The police here are more important than the government itself," Mohammed Said Khoja, a senior Saudi diplomat in Thailand, told the New York Times in 1994.
"I am a Muslim, and I stay because I feel like I am fighting demons.
As the saga raged, diplomatic ties between the two nations deteriorated.
Thai workers in Saudi Arabia lost their work permits and were sent back to their home countries.
Saudi Arabia has downgraded its diplomatic relations with the country.
And until 2010, thousands of Thai Muslims were stuck in limbo waiting for travel visas to make their pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Saudis, it seems, were holding the permits hostage under the pretext of "technical reasons".
This is the point in a blockbuster movie where justice would begin to be served, solutions would be proposed, a rare 50-carat blue diamond would be discovered, and everything would begin to be put right.
But in real life, diamond thefts are a bit messier.
Five officers were eventually charged, but to the dismay of the Saudis, the case was dismissed in 2015 for lack of evidence.
The blue diamond is still missing, while its sister stones have fetched millions of dollars at auction.
In 2016, CNN reported that there was something of an "obsession" with blue diamonds in the auction world.
The previous November, a 12.03-carat version named "Blue Moon" sold for $48.4 million.
Perhaps the only player in the saga who has found peace is the man who started it all.
The blue diamond thief became a Buddhist monk
In 2016, the Thai press revealed that Kriangkrai had decided to become a monk.
His sentence for his crime was relatively light; the former gardener served only three years of his prison term.
But that does not mean that he was not punished in other ways, as is the legendary nature of ill-gotten diamonds and their curses.
Kriangkrai told local media that his life has been haunted by the robbery, which unleashed an "avalanche" of suffering on his family.
"I am sure that all my misfortunes are the result of a curse from the Saudi (blue) diamond I stole, so I decided to become a monk for the rest of my life to redeem my bad karma," he said
As the article indicates, he may not have fully cleansed his soul of this affair.
When he became Buddhist monkKriangkrai was given a new name.
It is now known as the "He who has the knowledge of the diamond.
Buddhist monk in Thailand
Saudi Arabia has not sent an ambassador to Thailand for decades and restricts travel between the two countries because of robberies and unsolved murders.
Updated to 26 January 2022 :
Thailand and Saudi Arabia resume relations: a "breakthrough" after 30 years of strained relations
See also :
The incredible story of the Golden Buddha at Wat Traimit in Bangkok
On pain of death, do not touch Queen Sunandha!
Source: Daily Beast, The Nation
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