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A Jubilee Present

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A Jubilee Present is a short story by Ernest William Hornung featuring gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, originally published in the second collection of stories The Black Mask in 1901. When adapted for television in 1977 the title was changed to The Gold Cup.

The plot concerns Raffles's fascination with a priceless gold cup, on display at the British Museum. Despite heavy security, Raffles and his accomplice Bunny Manders manage to steal the cup and evade an attempt to recover it by the Metropolitan Police. To Bunny's great surprise however, rather than melt the cup down and sell it, Raffles posts the cup to Queen Victoria as a tribute – a present to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

In the television adaptation, a subplot is inserted about a society of criminologists, taken from The Criminologists' Club another Raffles short story.

References

A Jubilee Present Wikipedia