Twinkle, twinkle . . .

Sisiaskit Jules could have revised the lyrics to the children's song to be Twinkle Twinkle little diamond, how I wonder where you are.

More than a month ago, he was flying from Kamloops to Winnipeg for an aboriginial people's choice awards ceremony with his Sage Hills drumming group. He went through airport security three times, removing several rings he usually wears each time.

Then he gathered his belongings and sat down in the lounge to wait for his plane. That's when he realized the diamond from the centre of one of his rings was missing.

"I sat down and was just going to put my rings back on," he said.

He spoke to airport security staff after realizing the tiny rock was gone.

Like the proverbial needle in the haystack, the diamond was suspected to be somewhere in the Kamloops airport.

But in a building that big, what are the chances of finding something the size of a pen nib?

Airport manager Fred Legace joked that he put all the women in the building on alert for the sparkly gemstone.

And on Thursday, an eagle-eyed employee of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority found it.

She didn't want to be interviewed. Legace handed the diamond over to Jules late that afternoon in a plastic bag.

Jules said it's amazing to think that the diamond was found considering the size of the building and the number of people who pass through.

"I'm going to get it set again," he said.

And he might be wearing it when he goes back to the airport in the near future to hand over a traditional Shuswap dugout canoe he is making for display there.

Maybe then, he'll also get to meet the woman who put the sparkle back on his finger.