A dream from the gods? Poor fisherman finds rare pearl, rich businessman offers $330,000 to buy

A poor fisherman in Nakhon Si Thammarat, southern Thailand, had a dream that an old man asked him to walk down the beach and said he would receive a “gift,” and he actually found an extremely rare orange Melo pearl. Now a Chinese buyer is willing to pay 10 million baht (about $332,000) to buy it, so that the fisherman’s Family can live a good Life.

The Daily Mail reports that Hatchai Niyomdecha, 37, was taking his family to the beach on Jan. 27 to collect shells when he found an abandoned buoy washed ashore with three snail shells and several shells stuck to it.

After Hachai and his brother brought Home what they found, his father, who was in charge of cleaning, found a coin-sized orange pearl in the snail shell. Hachai first called his wife and children over to admire it together, and when it was confirmed that the orange pearl was an extremely expensive merlot pearl, even the neighbors came to see what it was all about.

Hachai recalled that he had a strange dream a few days ago, “an old gentleman with a long beard told me to walk to the beach to get a gift, and I think he led me to this pearl”. He thought the old man with the white beard in his dream was a fairy to help him get out of poverty and that “the money would not only change my life, but also my Destiny and our whole family would have a better life.

Melo melo is formed by a kind of sea snail called “coconut vortex snail” (Melo melo), which is deposited inside their shells and is commonly found in the Andaman Sea off the coast of the South China Sea and Myanmar, and is also carried by the currents to the Gulf of Thailand. Unlike the traditional pearls in oyster shells, melo melo pearls are still uncultivated and are therefore particularly valuable. The color ranges from orange, tan to brown, with orange being the most expensive.

According to the report, the merlot pearl found by Hachai weighs 7.68 grams. He was convinced that it was worth up to 10 million baht and was determined to sell it for the highest price, so he declined offers of 1 million baht and 5 million baht from a wealthy businessman and luxury collector in a neighboring province, respectively. A Chinese buyer had already raised the price to Hachai’s heart’s content and was ready to go to Hachai’s house to inspect the item in person.

A Chinese buyer is now willing to pay 10 million baht for a merlot pearl found by Hachai, a fisherman in Nakhon, southern Thailand’s Krabi Ratchasima province.