Either this guy is stupid or…no, he’s just stupid.

So a dude walks into a library in D.C. with a copy of Shakespeare’s first folio and asks if the staff there can authenticate it.

It just so happens that exact folio was stolen from Durham University Library (in Jolly ol’ England!) 10 years ago.

The guy claims to have bought the folio in Cuba.

Now he’s in police custody and his house in being searched. According to the Times Online several other pieces of rare literature were stolen with the folio:

Two hand-written manuscripts from the late 14th or early 15th century were taken; one bearing an English translation of the New Testament and the other containing a fragment of a poem by Canterbury Tales author Geoffrey Chaucer. Books stolen included a first edition of Beowulf, printed in 1815, and two editions by the 10th century scholar Aelfric, one printed in 1566 and the other in 1709.

So why is this guy an idiot? Well, if he was involved in the theft, then he should have known that flashing the thing around would get noticed by authorities. If he really did buy the thing in Cuba, he might have taken the time (you know, all of five minutes with google) just to see if maybe, sometime, somewhere, something like that might have “gone missing.” I mean, why else would it be in Cuba in the first place?

Yes, it’s great that the folio has been returned to the University and all that, but you’d think if this guy really was the “international businessman” he claims to be he would have been a bit more intelligent about finding out whether the thing was real.

Some people.

The Streets – Hotel Expressionism