According to CNN, the extraordinary incident dates back to 1926, when Suzanne Schiltz, a chambermaid at a Paris hotel, was cleaning a room occupied by two young men. During the cleaning, she noticed an apple inside their suitcase.

Hungry, Schiltz picked up the apple and took a bite. Moments later, she felt something unusually hard inside it. Hidden in the apple was the 9.01-carat pink Grand Condé diamond.

It was no ordinary gemstone. The Grand Condé was considered one of France’s rarest and most historically significant jewels, and at the time police across Europe were searching for it.

The discovery came roughly two months after a spectacular theft at the historic Château de Chantilly, about 50 kilometres north of Paris.

More than 75 pieces of jewellery had been stolen from the château’s museum, with their total value estimated at around $3 million at the time.

The scale and execution of the robbery initially led investigators to believe that a highly skilled and well-trained criminal gang was behind it. The truth, however, was very different.

The thieves were two young former French Air Force personnel, Léon Kauffer and Émile Souter. They had reportedly managed to enter the château using little more than a few ladders before stealing the jewellery.

But after pulling off the massive heist, the two men faced a major problem: they could not easily sell what they had stolen.

They managed to dispose of jewellery worth only around 30,000 francs. Their biggest mistake was stealing the Grand Condé.

The pink diamond was so famous that virtually every major jeweller in Europe could recognise it. No reputable dealer was willing to risk buying it, knowing that any attempt to sell the gemstone could immediately attract police attention.

The diamond had become less of a fortune than a burden. Eventually, the thieves hid it inside an apple — a decision that would ultimately lead to their downfall.

The Grand Condé had reportedly been in the possession of the Condé family since around 1740. Its exact place of origin remains uncertain, with India, Borneo and Brazil among the possible sources suggested for the stone.

After reaching France, the diamond became the property of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, who served as France’s prime minister from 1723 to 1726.

The gemstone was initially mounted in a medal associated with the Order of the Golden Fleece before later being removed and set into a ring.

Its importance to the Condé family went far beyond its monetary value. Under a written family decree, the right to inherit the diamond was reserved for the eldest son of each generation, making it not merely a precious gemstone but a symbol of the family’s heritage and history.

Nearly a century after the theft, the story of the Grand Condé is set to enter another chapter.

In October 2026, the historic Château de Chantilly is expected to put the rare pink diamond on public display as part of an exhibition marking the centenary of the famous heist.

It will be the first major public exhibition of the gemstone in nearly a century. This time, however, the diamond will have an additional layer of protection.

Experts from France, Canada and Switzerland have conducted detailed examinations of its chemical composition, transparency, density and other physical characteristics.

The goal is to create what gem experts describe as a scientific “identity card” for the stone. If the diamond is ever stolen again, its unique characteristics could make it extremely difficult to sell on the legitimate market.

The story of the Grand Condé is more than a tale of a stolen diamond. It is a remarkable chain of events involving two amateur thieves, a historic French jewel, a hotel chambermaid — and an ordinary apple.

The most astonishing part of the story is perhaps the simplest: the elaborate theft of a famous diamond was not exposed by a detective or an elaborate police operation. It was exposed by a hungry chambermaid taking a bite of an apple.