Local tradition dictates that the touch of David Hume’s toe will bring good luck, though the practice ironically defies the philosopher’s vehement rejection of superstition.
Due to the statute’s placement to the High Court, suspected criminals are also said to rub the prodigious digit to help with their case.
Since 1997, when the public statue was erected at the top of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, it’s become an international point of interest for handsy passersby.
Shortly after artist Alexander “Sandy” Stoddart’s sculpture of the great Scottish Enlightenment thinker was installed in front of the High Court Building,
philosophy students began making pilgrimages to his likeness and rubbing his toe for luck and wisdom.
Over two decades later, hordes of tourists crowd around Hume’s foot at all times of day,
rendering the sacred toe a shiny golden sphere from all the contact.

I thought this was a neat looking statue the first time we passed it.
When we passed it next next day David must have gotten into trouble because he now had a dunce cap on.