text: Egypt police catch ancient manuscript thieves . CAIRO 1996-08-29 Egyptian police have arrested eight people who were trying to sell an ancient copy of the Old Testament , the official al-Akhbar newspaper said on Thursday . The daily said the men had wanted to sell the undated manuscript to a Jewish group for five million pounds ( $ 1.5 million ) . Instead an undercover police officer pretended to be interested in buying it and arrested them . The newspaper did not give any details about the manuscript but said it had been relinquished to the Islamic Museum in Cairo .