The next he called on examined the stones carefully.
"It is impossible to say, for certain," he said, "how much they are worth until they are cut, for there may be flaws in them that cannot be detected.

Now, if I were to buy them like this, I could not give more than a hundred rupees each.

If they are all flawless, they would be worth much more; but it would be a pure speculation, and I will not go beyond that sum." Stanley then visited the third store.

The trader here inspected them a little more carefully than the last had done, examined them with a magnifying glass, held them up to the light; then he weighed each stone and jotted down some figures.

At last, he said: "The stones are worth five thousand rupees.