You can imagine the conversation at the post office, can’t you. Counter clerk: “Are the contents of this package valuable? Would you like to insure them?” Customer: “No. It’s just some rocks.” Counter clerk: “Right. Okay then.”

Weird, yes, but exchanges like this are more common than you might think, as an increasing number of tourists take to posting rocks, sand and other solid aggregate to the Hawaiian archipelago.

According to the Huffington Post, Hawaii’s Hilo Post Office receives a steady stream of parcels laden with mineral matter, which are often accompanied by cryptic notes such as: “Tell Pele I’m sorry.”

So what’s going on? Well, according to postal workers, most of the rocks mailed to Hawaii are purloined souvenirs, which were illegally taken from the island by holidaymakers.   

But tourists returning these weighty mementos have not been motivated to do so by guilt or fear of prosecution, but by an ancient superstition that threatens to curse those who remove rocks from the islands.

That superstition is called Pele’s Curse, in honour of the Hawaiian goddess of fire, Pele, who is said to punish rock thieves with terrible misfortune.

(This, it’s worth mentioning, is not be confused with the other Pele’s Curse, which dictates that the football team predicted to win the World Cup by Pele, the retired soccer ace, will in fact get dumped out the tournament).

Jessica Ferracane, the public information officer for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, told the Huffington Post that it is illegal for tourists to take rocks from Hawaii, but dismissed the curse as nothing more than a myth (which is strange because it surely works in the park’s favour to peddle it as gospel).

“This myth is like a black cat crossing the road or a broken mirror,” Ferracane said. “There’s no mention in any of the oral traditions that Pele would curse rocks, so it’s just this unfortunate myth that has been perpetuated.”

Yet the parcels keep on coming. In fact, there’s a website dedicated exclusively to the rightful return of Hawaiian rocks, which is called, appropriately enough, Pele’s Curse.

The site gives a postal address to send rocks to, along with unattributed accounts of what happens to those who don’t return them.

“Pele's curse is not a mild-mannered one,” it warns. “Those allegedly afflicted by it don't misplace their car keys or develop runs in their stockings. Their bad luck is of the grievous variety: pets die, jobs are lost, houses burn down, sudden and devastating illness strikes loved ones, marriages break apart.”

The Huffington Post claims to have tracked down one such unfortunate; Karen Wade from Washington, who made the mistake of filching rocks from Hawaii. 

Wade claims that after her trip she lost two beloved pets, got divorced from her husband and had to leave her home. She believes the curse played a role in those events.

“We read up on Hawaii lore after we came home,” she said. “We looked at our souvenirs differently after that.”

Wade claims to have returned the souvenirs on a subsequent trip and believes she is now finally free of the curse.

Light-fingered holidaymakers: you have been warned.  

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