DINNER THIEVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 200, 24 August 1929, Page 23

DINNER THIEVES.

TRICK AT MARSEILLES

RESTAURANT.

NETTED DINNER FOR TEN.

The police of Marseilles thought that a trick successfully tried there to obtain gratis a dinner for a party was of sufficient importance to be told to.the police of Paris so that the restaurateurs of Paris might he warned. A well-dressed stranger entered recently one of the principal restaurants of Marseilles and .ordered for ten persons a course dinner with three kinds of wine and liqueurs. From all accounts the dinner was well cooked and excellently served, but ere the last drop of brandy and coffee had been dispensed the company was thrown into consternation by the host's crying: "I am poisoned!" And he slumped down upon his seat and rolled his eyes.

The proprietor, his wife and the waiters rushed to the sinking man in a well-intentioned effort to give first aid. While the proprietor and his wife wrung their hands, exclaiming, "It could not have happened here!" and discussed the propriety of calling an ambulance, the guests left. Finally the ambulance arrived and took the host to the hospital. At the hospital he vapidly recovered.

When the restaurateur .called Tip the hospital to inquire after the health of his client he was told that he had been discharged. Nobody had paid the bill. He called the police and the police searched, but in vain.