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An outbreak of apparent kleptomania at a student hostel is not normally the sort of crime that arouses Hercule Poirot's interest, but it is a bizarre list of stolen and vandalised items: a stethoscope, some lightbulbs, some old flannel trousers, a box of chocolates, a slashed rucksack, some boracic powder and a diamond ring later found in a bowl of a soup. Celia Austin quickly confesses to the pettier incidents to attract the attention of a male student. The next morning she is discovered dead from an overdose of morphine, and Poirot sees through the attempts to make her death seem like suicide.