If you are just off to buy a new mezuzah, having read in last week’s JC that the parchment-filled cylinder adds £10,000 to the price of of any property, perhaps you should be aware that Monday was Purim.

There was actually no survey indicating that houses increase in value if a mezuzah is nailed on the doorpost, and no website called www.sellyourhouse4more.com.

This did not deter chabad.com from reporting our story in a very straight manner. So is the story a complete invention? Not according to rabbi David Okunov, quoted in the Chabad story. He says that his Brooklyn office has fielded calls for over 200 mezuzahs in the past month, whereas they normally sell 50.

Life is sometimes stranger than a Purim spiel.