Can a superstition keep people from stealing? Apparently, it can. Legend has it that taking a piece of lava rock from the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park - no matter how small the piece is - will bring the thief bad luck, courtesy of the goddess Pele.

So what happens to those who inadvertently bring home a bit of rock or sand in their hiking boots after a trek through the park? Well, if they start experiencing bad luck, they can send the rock back to Hawaii.

There are those who dispute whether this is actually a Hawaiian legend or whether it's just a creative technique to keep people from taking lava rocks from the park (which is illegal), and the "legend" itself has even been attributed to a particular park historian. But the truth is that it really doesn't matter whether the legend has any basis, in fact-people have been sending lava rocks and sand back to the National Park for years in an attempt to make the cause of their perceived bad luck go away.

Unfortunately, although the lava rocks which are sent back are kept in a display cabinet, the exhibit is not in an area that is open to visitors. The display is in the Kilauea Military Camp, which is a vacation spot for military personnel. There are other organizations which will accept your lava rocks returned to Hawaii (for a small fee, of course), but it's acknowledged that the best way to atone for your thieving ways is to return the lava rock in person. One return trip to Hawaii, coming up! (That's not such bad luck, is it?)

And what about the bits of lava rock that you can buy all over Hawaii? They'll tell you that they've struck a deal with the goddess Pele so she's not vengeful about the sacred rocks leaving Hawaii. But if you start having bad luck after you buy a lava rock, you know what you need to do. Start looking into airfare to Hawaii now, just in case.

Is it really bad luck or just superstition? You'll notice the two usually go hand in hand. Very few superstitions are known to bring you good luck. But, then again, who goes through life with only good things happening to them?

Life is supposed to be full of ups and downs. You "go with the flow" when things are good and you "roll with the punches" when things are not so good. So, why do we seem to get so bent out of shape when "bad things" happen?

Has anyone not broken a mirror and, as a result, not had any bad luck for the course of seven years? It's very doubtful. You could go though your entire life not stepping on cracks or collecting four-leaf clovers and it still will not keep pets from dying tragically, jobs from being lost or relationships from failing.

However, if you brought home a lava rock from a Hawaiian volcano, somehow these life incidents take on a whole new meaning. Now your life is cursed for stealing items sacred to the goddess Pele, and you are rightfully being punished for your transgression.

The Los Angeles Times reported the case of Timothy Murry, a 32-year-old (at the time) who brought back volcanic rock as a souvenir to his home in Florida. Once he got back, and over the course of time (the exact time lapse is not noted), his dog dies, his five-year engagement breaks up, and the Feds nail him for computer copyright infringement (actually pretty rare).

Now, are these things that would have happened anyway or was it solely because of the lava rock? We hear of similar things happening in people's lives all the time but, somehow, they don't always have the goddess Pele to blame.

Could it be that good luck and bad luck are just perceptions of how you look at life, and depending on if you're optimistic or pessimistic determines how you relate to any particlar event that happens to you?

Although I have to admit, creating a legend about a vengeful goddess to keep hundreds of tourists from stealing rock formation from a national park is pretty ingenious, if not only to help preserve the area, but to also make thieves focus on their many misfortunes as well.

For more information about this and other Hawaiian lava rock stories, take a visit to www.snopes.com/luck/pelev

")