What would you do with a 2kg gold lunch box worth multimillions if you can’t find anyone to flog it to? For two Indian thieves, the solution while they were holed up in a Mumbai luxury hotel was quite simple: use it for their lunch.

The two had stolen the box studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds, and several other items just over a week before from the Nizam’s Museum in Hyderabad.

The two ended up in Mumbai – hundreds of kilometres away - trying to find a buyer.

The three-tiered box, made for the last royal ruler of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur, was taken with other historic jewellery and gems said to be worth up to $100 million after the thieves hid in a ventilation shaft.

The two masked men had then just walked out of the museum and escaped on a motorbike.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.