"The Brown Hand," a well-noted[1] short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was first published in The Strand Magazine, May 1899.

The story is based on an Indian urban legend that tells of a Muslim who was forced to have his arm amputated after an accident, and died a few months later, but after death became a ghost and began wandering about in search of his limb.

[2] Once when he was posted at Peshawar, then a main city of undivided Punjab (hence a part of India), he had to attend a poor Afghan whose one hand was in such a bad state due to the growth of a gangrene, that the only way to save his life was to amputate it.

But the ghost failed to find the hand since it had been damaged in a fire that broke out at the doctor's house in Bombay.

But Hardacre's experiment failed as the Afghan on seeing the hand, wailed in agony and smashed the jar on the floor before disappearing.

Dr. Holden stated that the ghost had finally found his amputated hand and before leaving, he had bowed thrice in front of him, in a way similar to how Afghans pay respect.