.... The boy was poor--his only worthwhile possession was a watch he'd inherited from his grandfather. Thinking about his sweetheart's lovely hair, he decided to sell the watch in order to buy her a silver barrette.

The girl had no money herself to buy him a present. She went to a shop of the most successful merchant in the town and sold him her hair. With the money, she bought a gold watchband for her lover.

When they met on the day of engagement party, she gave him the wristband for a watch he had sold, and he gave her the barratte for the hair she no longer had.

(By The River Piedra, I Sat and Wept/Paulo Coelho)