Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the world-famous detective,
Sherlock Holmes, was not above telling tales about himself in which
he was the laughing-stock. Here is one of those stories. As he tells
it, he was waiting at a taxi stand outside the railway station in
Paris. When a taxi pulled up. He put his suitcase in it and got in
himself. As he was about to tell the taxi-driver where he wanted to
go, the driver asked him: "Where can I take you, Mr. Doyle?"

Doyle was flabbergasted. He asked the driver whether he knew him by
sight. The driver said: "No Sir, I have never seen you before." The
puzzled Doyle asked him what made him think that he was Conan Doyle.

The driver replied: "This morning's paper had a story about you being
on vacation in Marseilles. This is the taxi-stand where people who
return from Marseilles always come to. Your skin color tells me you
have been on vacation. The ink-spot on your right index finger
suggests to me that you are a writer. Your clothing is very English,
and not French. Adding up all those pieces of information, I deduced
that you are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."

Doyle said: "This is truly amazing. You are a real-life counter-part
to my fictional creation, Sherlock Holmes."

"There is one other thing," the driver said.

"What is that?"

"Your name is on the front of your suitcase."