Yes. Well let him out! If your grandparents were typical US kids they played this joke on their grocer. It's one of those old jokes that has become like urban legend.
This can has sat atop this workbench since our grandparents were kids. No one has disturbed the contents of this old mill building since perhaps 1936. I used my sweet little Cooke 8 1/2" on full plate size for this.
Whether it was Sir Walter Raleigh, or Prince Albert in the can, definitely part of the folk-lore, along with the phone call that asked the recipient; 'Is your refrigerator running?"