A good story is the first step towards captivating people's interest in disciplines such as scenic arts and literature, but also in scientific articles. However, even the most interesting issue should be complemented with a well-built script to ensure success. The article ‘Genetic affinity and admixture of northern Thai People along their migration route in Northern Thailand: evidence from autosomal STR loci’ by Kutanan et al.1 is an example of that. The authors make good use of a set of commercial STRs (AmpFISTR Identifiler Kit, Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA), which are not exactly the state-of-the-art markers in human genetics, to draw an interesting hypothesis about the peopling of northern Thailand, thanks to a valuable collection of samples and a very detailed statistical approach.