History Main / WorthlessTreasureTwist

** A variation in the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S4E14OfLateIThinkOfCliffordville Of Late I Think of Cliffordville]]". Corrupt CEO Feathersmith makes a DealWithTheDevil to go back to 1910 with less than $1500 and rebuild his empire from scratch. Feathersmith uses the majority of his cash to buy up 1400 acres of land and as soon as the papers are signed, crows to the owners on how the land sits on top of a massive oil field and they've just given away millions of dollars. He's thrown when they respond they already knew that but aren't sure why Feathersmith is so happy as the oil is a mile underground. Too late, Feathersmith realizes that in 1910, the technology to drill that deep won't be invented for nearly 30 years and thus he's spent nearly all his money on land that is, basically, worthless. Feathersmith could have held onto the land but his impatient nature refuses to let him wait so long. More importantly, he realizes too late that while the Devil agreed to make him [[ExactWords look younger]], he's still internally a 75-year-old man and won't live long enough to strike oil. Feathersmith ends up selling the land to a resident in order to get the money to buy a ticket back to the present. That resident keeps the land, reaches the oil, and ends up becoming a wealthy tycoon...[[LaserGuidedKarma with Feathersmith now a janitor at his company.]]

* ''Played with in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. At the start of the post-expansion story of ''Endwalker'', the [[PlayerCharacter Warrior of Light]] decides to go on a lower stakes adventure after their recent "save the world" adventure and go treasure hunting with a few of their friends from the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Their destination is Alzadaal's Legacy, the lost treasury of a former satrap of Thavnair who was said to have crossed into other worlds, and their goal is to both claim the treasure to help fund the restoration of Thavnair after the recent disasters and to investigate the claims about traveling to other worlds. It turns out that the treasure was real, but it turns out to be Vritra's DragonHorde, and he was already planning to dip into it to fund the restoration of Thanvair anyway, meaning that the heroes pretty much just trashed the treasury's defenses for nothing. As for the claim about traveling between worlds, it turns out that the centerpiece of the treasury is a dimensional tear leading into The Void, a DeathWorld that collapsed due to being flooded with darkness and home to warped Voidsent monsters. Vritra had tried to expand the tear in the past so he could look for his sister Azdaja, who was lost in the Void, but gave up due to being only able to fit a small remote body that couldn't contend with the numerous Voidsent. However, the heroes are interested in exploring the Void anyway and help find a way to safely expand the tear into a controlled voidgate so that a small expedition team can be sent.

* ''Played with in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. At the start of the post-expansion story of ''Endwalker'', the [[PlayerCharacter Warrior of Light]] decides to go on a lower stakes adventure after their recent "save the world" adventure and go treasure hunting with a few of their friends from the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Their destination is Alzadaal's Legacy, the lost treasury of a former satrap of Thavnair who was said to have crossed into other worlds, and their goal is to both claim the treasure to help fund the restoration of Thavnair after the recent disasters and to investigate the claims about traveling to other worlds. [[spoiler: It turns out that the treasure was real, but it turns out to be Vritra's DragonHorde, and he was already planning to dip into it to fund the restoration of Thanvair anyway, meaning that the heroes pretty much just trashed the treasury's defenses for nothing. As for the claim about traveling between worlds, it turns out that the centerpiece of the treasury is a dimensional tear leading into The Void, a DeathWorld that collapsed due to being flooded with darkness and home to warped Voidsent monsters. Vritra had tried to expand the tear in the past so he could look for his sister Azdaja, who was lost in the Void, but gave up due to being only able to fit a small remote body that couldn't contend with the numerous Voidsent. However, the heroes are interested in exploring the Void anyway and help find a way to safely expand the tear into a controlled voidgate so that a small expedition team can be sent.]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPGLegendOfTheFivePendants'': The eponymous pendants which seemingly are magical are nothing more than ordinary objects which prompts Mario to faint upon hearing this revelation.

* In ''Fanfic/ThePrinceAndTheThief'', Verosika and Robo-Fizz go to all the trouble of breaking into a vault in Lucifer and Lilith's room with the intent of stealing their daily grimoire... and it's nothing but a family photo album. Ironically, Striker, who was meant to distract Moxxie, winds up finding the real grimoire in his room.