The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

On Christmas morning, a man named Peterson brings Holmes a hat and a goose that were dropped during a street fight. That evening, Peterson finds a rare and priceless blue carbuncle (a precious gem) inside the goose's throat. The gem had been stolen from the Countess of Morcar's hotel suite a few days earlier. Holmes traces the goose back to a salesman, then to a breeder, and finally to a man named James Ryder, who worked at the hotel. Ryder confesses that he stole the gem and hid it in his sister's goose to avoid detection. Holmes, in a rare act of mercy, lets Ryder go because the gem has been recovered and Christmas is a time for forgiveness.