In the nightly marketplace of Agrabah, when the noise has died down and the paper lanterns flicker in the clear night sky, there's one display manned by a green-eyed man with a smile that's far too sincere for the crowded, dirty street on which he sells his wares. He has the usual fare you'd expect – lavish jewelry that are most likely made of glass and painted metal, pots and pans haphazardly cobbled together and useful for anything but cooking, and clothing that the seller won't let you look at too closely, always cautious of the keen eye that can catch a frayed hemline.

Run-of-the-mill junk, just like most of the wares in Agrabah's marketplace, day or night. At least during the daytime, you can find fruit preserves and fresh fish. No, what makes the night market worthwhile are the stories he tells. Maybe that frayed cloak was worn by a runaway princess. Maybe the pot was handled during a chase between a thief and the palace guards. Maybe an especially clever winged lemur tried to stuff those fake jewels into his mouth during one of those chases. The stories that man could tell – Bolin, he calls himself – are all almost worth throwing away a pity coin for, almost worth a cold desert night in the lower rings of Agrabah. But the real gem in all of his stories, the real Diamond in the Rough, as he likes to call it, is a story of a lamp, and how it changed one young man's life forever.

Is it true? There are definitely those who don't believe it is. How could a simple old lamp, rusted along the sides and dented near the spout, change the life of some street rat? But Bolin always beckons his listeners to look closer; after all, he says, not everything is as it seems, and true value lies within.

Maybe he's right. Or maybe he's just another merchant with tall tales and a mouth that can run for hours. But with a story like the one he tells, one has to wonder.

This is the story of a street rat. His name was once inconsequential, an inaudible cough in the ears of anyone remotely important. At least, until both a princess and a lamp came along.

This is the story of a Diamond in the Rough.