# A couple booked a 14-course meal as cover to steal $1.7 million worth of wine

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-booked-a-14-course-meal-as-cover-to-steal-1-7-million-worth-of-wine/980861>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** food-cooking\
**Created:** [March 8, 2023, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-booked-a-14-course-meal-as-cover-to-steal-1-7-million-worth-of-wine/980861 "2023-03-08T08:07:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-booked-a-14-course-meal-as-cover-to-steal-1-7-million-worth-of-wine/980861/42 "2023-03-11T13:39:08Z")

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A friend of mine, who used to manage a restaurant, at one point told me that yuppies would regularly order bottles of wine worth tens of thousands of dollars during dinner. Not so much hundreds of thousands, but it was not a starred restaurant, or perhaps inflation? Either way, it should not surprise anyone that even non-famous restaurants have a small fortune in wine in stock, and that (rich) people drink it, be it as a status symbol or because they just really like it.

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-booked-a-14-course-meal-as-cover-to-steal-1-7-million-worth-of-wine/980861/43 "2023-03-11T13:44:33Z")

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> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> The value of everything is always subjective, being worth precisely what someone is willing to pay or trade for it.

Agreed. It’s not a matter of how much a “200 year old bottle of fermented grape juice” is _inherently_ worth, if that even means anything. Is a slip of green paper with Benjamin Franklin’s picture on it _inherently_ worth $100?

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-booked-a-14-course-meal-as-cover-to-steal-1-7-million-worth-of-wine/980861/44 "2023-03-11T17:13:35Z")

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> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Is a slip of green paper with Benjamin Franklin’s picture on it _inherently_ worth $100?

Yes it is. Kinda by definition, seeing as how a “dollar” is an abstraction to begin with. 😛

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