I heard this story that might even be true.

Apparently the Russian Ambassador in London took Khrushchev’s pair of Purdey’s , that had been built for the Tsar, into Purdey for a service.

The guy behind the counter opened the case, made a note of the serial numbers and went off to look in a ledger.

He came back.

“I’m sorry Sir. We can’t handle these, they appear to be stolen!”