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Somewhere, a wood sprite is late for his appointments...

I was thinking a packrat... but they are North American creatures... could be a related little collector in China

A pack rat, also called a trade rat or wood rat, generally refers to the North American Woodrat (Neotoma cinema), but other species of Neotoma also fall into the category. They are prevalent in the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Pack rats are a bit smaller than a typical rat and have long, bushy tails. Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats.
A peculiar characteristic is that if they find something they want, they will drop what they are currently carrying, for example a piece of cactus, and "trade" it for the new item. They are particularly fond of shiny objects, leading to tales of rats swapping jewelry for a stone. Jewellery (spelled jewelry in American English) consists of ornamental devices worn by persons, typically made with gems and precious metals. ...

Probably spot on, sir.

However I need to maintain the integrity of our resident conspiracy theorists...

"DAMMIT KANG! NOT AGAIN..."

Ahhh! Pack Rats, I know them well. We have them by the thousands on my place. They steal any thing shiny they can find. I do allot of quail hunting on my place and sometimes empty shotguns shells don't get picked up. If you don't pick it up a pack rat will, they love shiny brass hulls. Had a fire on my place 3 years ago and several nests got burnt out. I found pockets in the nests where they're treasures were stored. Pieces of glass, foil, bolts, shotgun brass, busted pair of sun-glass’s, aluminum tabs, bottle caps and one had a whole Shlitz can in it. Every now and then I invite a couple of buddies over and we have a rat shoot. Just put a pile of sweet-feed by the shed and under the guard light. Sit on the back porch and shoot rats all night. We take it serious! My Rat Rig in an Anshutz 22 topped with 3x9 Zeiss Conguest scope. It's about 50 yards to the feed pile.