The Precious Fragmentation

Summary
On the way to buy Chinese food, the guys see someone that looks like Adam West and follow him to a garage sale, where they buy a box of merchandise for 60 dollars. They ignore Penny's anger at not getting food, and among other things they find a 'Lord of the Rings' ring. Later at the university cafeteria, Howard informs them it is not a piece of merchandise, but an actual prop from the movie that was stolen. They value it at $10000-15000 and start to argue. Sheldon declares it is his, as he found it in the box, Raj wants to buy a jet ski with the money and Leonard wants to return it to Peter Jackson (Howard's motives are not revealed). Until they decide, they allow Penny to hold onto it. Later, Sheldon tries to take it while Penny and Leonard are sleeping, but she is startled and punches him in the face.

Later on, Koothrappali has his lawyer cousin join them via laptop and bargains for jet ski's. They disagree and all grab the ring, then decide the last to hold on will get it. Back home, they are picking up keys when Penny arrives. After telling them she has a bag from Victoria's Secret, Leonard says, 'I'm out,' and goes after Penny. The three remaining guys try to goad each other to get angry and let go. Sheldon wakes up to see the other two let go, and runs to clean it. He looks in the mirror and sees he is Gollum, but then wakes from his dream. None of them are holding it, but Leonard tells them he shipped it back to Peter Jackson. They are angry because he opted out, but he says it couldn't have ended well, as the winner would not be liked by any of the others. However, it turns out Leonard kept it from the others. Sheldon sneaks in again and tries to take it, but it turns into a fight, and Penny leaves while claiming she should have stuck with dumb guys from the gym.

Title reference: Gollum (who covets the ring in 'Lord of the Rings') is known for saying, 'My precious.'

Quotes
(Howard, Raj and Sheldon are asleep on the couch. Howard has let go of the ring and Raj has let go of it and is sleeping on him. Sheldon wakes up and sees he still has the ring.)

Sheldon:

(Sheldon is sneaking into Leonard's room to take back the "One Ring" prop.)

Sheldon: I knew It.

(He is almost successful until Leonard grabs his hand.)

Sheldon: Give us the precious.

Leonard: NEVER!

Leonard and Sheldon: Gimmie! Never! Gimmie! Never! Gimme! It's MINE! Gimmie! It's mine! It's MINE! Gimmie! Gimmie!

(The two of them fight and stress Penny out.)

Penny: (Sigh), I gotta to go back to dating dumb guys from the gym.

Leonard and Sheldon: Gimmie! Gimmie! IT'S MINE!!