The Man Who Went Shopping For Dining Chairs and Accidentally Bought Stonehenge.
On September 21, 1915, a British barrister named Cecil Chubb was given a very simple task by his wife, Mary. She sent him to a local auction in Salisbury with strict instructions: buy a nice set of dining chairs for their home.
But as Chubb sat in the auction house, he got distracted. "Lot 15" came up for sale, a 30-acre plot of land featuring a crumbling, dilapidated ring of ancient rocks.
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The bidding was incredibly sluggish, and on a complete whim, Chubb raised his hand.
When the gavel fell, he had just purchased Stonehenge for £6,600 (roughly $800,000 today). He proudly presented the 5,000-year-old megalithic wonder to his wife as a surprise "birthday present."
Mary was absolutely furious. She didn't want a pile of ancient rocks; she wanted her dining chairs.
Who among us hasn't just dropped 800 grand on something worthless that then turned out to be of cultural and anthropological significance, on a bored whim
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