Many a thief has tried to smuggle jewels out by swallowing them. Unfortunately, for a thief in Joplin, Missouri, he didn’t seem to have the stomach for it and wound up generating more attention than he wanted. A diamond ring worth 20,000, weighing 2 carats in total, was stolen from a woman’s purse in Joplin, Missouri, where police sent out pictures of the pricey jewel to the local jewelry stores. A local jeweler who saw the photos recognized it as a piece being offered for sale at his shop, and decided to stall the thief and his accomplice. When police arrived, the man sought a time-tested way to get rid of the evidence; swallowing the ring.

It might have worked too, except that upon questioning, the thief began to cough uncontrollably, upon being questioned, bringing new meaning to the phrase: “cough up the evidence.” It may seem like a smart thing to do, but the body knows when a foreign element is introduced and will do everything it can to eliminate the offensive object one way or another. In fact, swallowing diamond jewelry, or any other kind of jewelry, is not without some risk. It’s not as safe as may be perceived. The ring can get caught up in the intestines and require surgery to remove. It may be painful to the person who swallowed it too. If jewelry that is swallowed has sharp points or sharp diamonds it can even puncture the intestine. Sometimes the jewelry can pass through the entire digestive system and be eliminated the next time the person goes to the bathroom. However, that’s not a sure thing, and swallowing jewelry is never a good idea. The thief may not be happy having been caught, but it’s probably good for his health that he managed to cough it up before it did any long-term physical damage.