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| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings! |
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| 7 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1477469025024098800 |
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| 10 | [[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/PoorlyDrawnLines https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/journey_cost.jpg]]]] |
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| 12 | ->'''Black Mage:''' We came to the frozen asshole of the planet like Sarda said. What I wanna know is, where's the crappy item of great power we were promised, 'cause I don't see it. If it's something lame and immaterial like "friendship" or "trust", I'll have to cut his face off.\ |
| 13 | '''Red Mage:''' Yeah, I don't need a quest to teach me the importance of faking friendship. |
| 14 | -->-- ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' #536, [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/04/05/episode-536-savvy-customers/ "Savvy Customers"]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | A type of PlotTwist in which people spend a great deal of effort to find what they've been led to believe would be a very valuable treasure, only to find out that it isn't what they expected. Instead of gold, jewels, or something else that has practical or monetary value, it turns out to be something else entirely. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | There are five main variants to this trope: |
| 19 | # The thing that the character thought would contain a treasure turns out empty. Either the characters were misled and there never was a treasure to begin with, or the treasure used to be there but is long gone. Or worse yet, time and/or the environment destroyed the treasure and all that is left is its scraps. |
| 20 | # The treasure turns out to be something that has only sentimental, intellectual, spiritual, or philosophical value to those who originally owned or crafted it. If the villain and the hero are competing for the same treasure, the villain will almost certainly fail to appreciate the value of the treasure, while the hero may in fact find something worthwhile in the treasure or at least understand its metaphorical value. |
| 21 | # The treasure may have held value at the time, but for one reason or another, it is [[WorthlessCurrency obsolete by the time it is dug up]]. The most common variant of this is [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Confederate money]], which has its own section below, but it can also apply to vouchers for businesses that no longer exist, metals that were precious at the time but are common today, and so on. |
| 22 | # The character assumes the treasure is worthless after getting it and tries to actively invoke this Trope and its positive values (even if it's a lie). Then it turns out that the treasure ''had'' worth (just not one immediately apparent to anybody involved in getting it) and the character sees his life demolished in the ensuing SpringtimeForHitler. Often {{Double Subver|sion}}ted when whatever forces demolished his life go too far and perform an action that renders the treasure actually worthless. |
| 23 | # The treasure is bait for a DeathTrap, so it's impossible to take it and stay alive afterwards (of course, sometimes the treasure is worthless even then, for the sake of a final "screw you" by the trap's maker). Occasionally there is no treasure at all, and the rumor of its existence ''is'' the bait (even having been released by whoever made the trap). Or, the treasure (or "treasure") is the seal of a SealedEvilInACan. Whoever takes it doesn't gets to enjoy it at all (if they are not going all "why would someone go through all the trouble to hide this thing?") because they become the first (and sometimes only) casualties of the Evil breaking loose. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | If the treasure is mainly just the incentive for competition between the hero and the rival (see: MacGuffin), then the reveal of its worthlessness makes it a MockGuffin, and can also result in NoMacGuffinNoWinner. Might involve AllThatGlitters, if the object appears to be valuable but is really worthless. If it has sentimental value to a particular character, it is NumberOneDime. If the characters find something valuable but discard it due to ignorance, stupidity, or possibly not being from Earth, it's a case of WorthlessYellowRocks. If the worthless treasure is edible, that's EdibleTreasure. If the worthless treasure consists of defunct money, it's WorthlessCurrency. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | A common resolution to a WhatsInsidePlot. Related to the ShaggyDogStory, for obvious reasons. But if the characters gained more from the experience of looking for the treasure than they do from the value of the treasure they end up with, ItsTheJourneyThatCounts. See MagicFeather for cases where the heroes only ''think'' they need the treasure, but in fact they had its power all along. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | !!''[[AC:Warning:]]'' This is a SpoileredRotten trope, that means that '''EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE''' on this list is a spoiler by default and most of them will be unmarked. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned This is your last warning]]; only proceed if you really believe you can handle this list. |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | !! Examples: |
| 32 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 33 | [[folder:"It's Confederate money!"]] |
| 34 | A long-since-[[DiscreditedTrope discredited example]], in the examples below [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Confederate money]] is considered worthless and a waste of resources. Of course, because of its historical value, preserved Confederate money is worth far more than US currency of the same denomination, with mint-condition $100 and $500 bills worth tens of thousands of US dollars. The real irony, of course, is that Confederate money is so valuable ''now'' because most of it was destroyed due to being considered worthless. [[note]]While none of these examples mention what was done with the money, the perceived worthlessness would indicate the cash was either left behind or destroyed in some way. In reality, the currency was already technically worthless at the time of printing, as they were promissory notes (like American currency of the time, they were theoretically meant to represent a set amount of precious metal that would be given to the bearer on demand) with promised payment in precious metals being predicated on the Confederacy actually winning the war and being able to then pay back the note bearers. The notes even stated that they would not be valid for real specie until anywhere from six months to two years after a peace treaty was signed with the United States.[[/note]] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | Somewhat similar to Confederate money is UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era German POW Camp scrips. Under Geneva Conventions, a captor nation is required to pay its [=POWs=] at a rate equal to its own men (enlisted men had to subject themselves to forced labor to be paid... although not working wasn't really an option; officers were exempt from working). The catch is that [=POWs=] (at least those from Western countries) were paid in scrips that were good only at camp facilities, which offered nothing worthwhile for them to buy. Most threw away these scrips, but authentic World War II German camp scrips are now worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. |
| 37 | ---- |
| 38 | * An episode of the Creator/GeorgeReeves ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'' centered around an old man trying to keep his loot safe from robbers. Turns out to be Confederate money, considered worthless in the 1950s. |
| 39 | * In the "Mayberry Goes Bankrupt" episode of ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'', Andy is about to evict Frank Myers from his house, until he finds a 100-year-old bond worth many thousands of dollars including accumulated interest, which is potentially worth more than Mayberry has in its treasury. Later, Andy and Barney discover that the bond was signed during the Civil War, which makes the bond worthless since the payout would have been made in Confederate dollars. |
| 40 | * ''Series/BlakesSeven''. The trope is RecycledInSpace in the episode "Gold". Our heroes rob a shipment of gold being transferred from the planet Zerok to the Federation. The gold has had its atomic composition changed to prevent it being stolen, so they exchange this useless gold for a BriefcaseFullOfMoney in Zerok currency. ''Then'' they discover that Zerok has just joined the Federation, rendering the currency invalid, while the BigBad can just have the gold changed back to normal on Zerok. |
| 41 | * ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' once found a treasure map that led to a lost fortune. This was one of the few times Boss Hogg managed to come out on top, only to discover the fortune was Confederate money. (The real treasure was the payroll document signed by General Lee.) |
| 42 | * "There'll Be Some Changes Made", a story in ''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMystery'' #33 (1956) has a man who resents his Revolutionary War era ancestor for spending the family fortune, so creates a time machine that can kill the man before he has a chance to do so. As a result, a strongbox containing the money instantly appears on the table ... and it turns out to be Continental currency, which had collapsed in value by 1778. |
| 43 | * ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'': The episode "[[Recap/LittleHouseOnThePrairieS4E18TheInheritance The Inheritance]]" saw the Ingalls inherit a distant relative's fortune in Confederate money. The plot twist came when they had already run up a huge line of credit at the Mercantile purchasing new farm equipment, seeds, etc. with a promise to pay. This is more understandable than most examples since the show is set shortly after the Civil War when actual Confederate money would have still been considered worthless. |
| 44 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{MASK}}'' episode "Patchwork Puzzle" (December 11, 1985), the villains are after a large cache of money hidden during the Civil War (specifically, around the Washington Monument)...and of course they never expect it to be Confederate cash. By this point, the ''actual'' value of Confederate money was becoming more obvious, so VENOM was just dumb. |
| 45 | * Inverted in ''Film/TheResistanceBanker''. To maintain accounts on the people who have donated money to LaResistance, yet not leave evidence that can enable German occupiers to identify them, Walraven issues them worthless stock from Czarist Russia which no one will pay attention to, yet can be handed in for reimbursement after the war. |
| 46 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' episode "A Night of Fright Is No Delight" (January 10, 1970), the money Scooby inherits turns out to be Confederate currency. When the chest containing the money is opened, the characters' reactions are those of disappointment. |
| 47 | * Subverted in the Silver Age ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' story "The Super-Servant of Crime!" (May 7, 1959). Mark Malloy asks Superman to fetch a treasure chest from the bottom of the sea containing valuable treasure. Superman, playing the role of a LiteralGenie, does this as planned, but brings him a chest full of Confederate money dated to 1863 as addressed in a letter. Baldy, the property owner of Malloy's hideout, gets his just desserts at the end, when Superman tells him that the Confederate stamp posted on it was worth thousands of dollars alone. Nowadays, that rare confederate stamp would sell for over $50,000 if in mint condition. |
| 48 | * The old ''Literature/TheThreeInvestigators'' children's novels contained an example that lacked a clear moral: a sunken riverboat holding a watertight chest that contains millions of dollars in Confederate money. It may have been worthless when the book was written, but... |
| 49 | * British TV series ''Series/WhenTheBoatComesIn''; Russian sailor Kaganovich comes to England to confront Jack Ford and to recover the money his father paid him to smuggle him out of revolutionary Russia; Ford hands over every penny, unspent; to reveal that Kaganovich Senior had paid him in money issued by Kerensky's Provisional Government, and which became worthless when Lenin's Bolshevik Government issued a new currency. |
| 50 | * Zig-zagged in the young-adult novel ''[[Franchise/IndianaJones Young Indiana Jones and the Plantation Treasure]]'', in which the chest of valuables is gotten to by the villains first. They discover that, rather than cash or gold, it contains pre-Civil War stock certificates in companies such as the Tredegar Iron Works, which were destroyed during the war. Their rage distracts them enough for the heroes to get the drop on them. After the protagonists recover the chest, they find that some of the companies represented survived the war and thrived afterward, making those stocks worth a great deal of money. |
| 51 | * Zigzagged in ''ComicBook/Hitman1993'' where the treasure ''is'' Confederate money and pursued for its antique worth, the twist is that being buried in a coffin in the Southern climate has reduced the money to dust. |
| 52 | [[/folder]] |
| 53 | |
| 54 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 55 | * The ''Manga/Area88'' manga had a chapter where the base's pilots go mad combing the desert after an intercepted radio transmission mentions a convoy carrying gold. It turns out to be the enemy's top tactician, General Gold, who died in an attack on the convoy. The pilot who made the attack (who had been missing for a day or two) had burned half of Gold's papers and used the other half as tissues since he couldn't read them. The base commander bursts out laughing upon hearing this since deciphering them could have ended the war. |
| 56 | * In ''Anime/AshitaNoNadja'' we have George, Nadja, and Kennosuke setting off to find a treasure that supposedly belonged to Joan of Arc. It turns out to be a beautiful flower patch that Joan herself planted as a teenager, before leaving her beloved countryside. |
| 57 | * The episode of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' with the Shield card explains that the spirit of said card has, appropriately, an instinct for guarding things and will, in the absence of proper guidance, find some treasure, latch onto it, and protect it from all comers (including, in this case, the very annoyed rightful owner). The treasure it selects is not revealed until Sakura breaks through the shield and captures the card, and turns out to be of purely sentimental value a bouquet of flowers in memory of Sakura's late mother, treasured by her cousin aka Tomoyo's mom. |
| 58 | ** In this same episode is a similar example, revealing Tomoyo's most prized possession. Tomoyo is filthy rich, has her own bodyguards, cool high-tech toys, and a seemingly limitless budget to dress up Sakura in cute costumes and film her. Her most prized possession is a child's eraser, in the shape of a bunny rabbit, worth maybe ten yen, given to her by her best friend Sakura on the day they met and lovingly cherished for years afterwards. |
| 59 | * ''Manga/CaseClosed'' has played with this a few times: |
| 60 | ** Episode 137 had a mansion where the treasure was the view from a hidden window. On Conan revealing this, the villain had a complete breakdown over all they had done to find it - including mass murder and disfiguring their own face. |
| 61 | ** Professor Agasa set up a treasure-hunting trip for the kids, but once they followed the clues to the treasure, they're shocked to find that the toys were ruined; Conan eventually deduces that a robber was trying to find counterfeit printing plates, all while discovering and decoding the clues to where said plates were hidden. |
| 62 | ** Shinichi, as a young boy, met the elder Kaitou Kid (the current Kaitou Kid's father) who gave him a clue that sent him on a puzzle-solving trip with Ran, but Shinichi misinterpreted the last clue so he thought the reward was the trip and the view of the sunset; upon revisiting the case as Conan, he realized the proper solution was to tear open the leather wallet holding the very first clue, upon which the message was revealed: "?" (Kaitou the elder was banking on Shinichi to go crying to his father Yusaku to solve the question, as the message--"Will you be able to stop me?"--was intended for said father; at some point, Yusaku must have seen the message because he tasked Yukiko with sending the reply--"!"--"Of course!") |
| 63 | ** In the 11th NonSerialMovie, ''Anime/DetectiveConanFilm11JollyRogerInTheDeepAzure'', the "pirate treasure" of Anne Bonny and Mary Read turns out to be a hidden but empty pirate ship, built by Anne while waiting for Mary to get out of prison, which crumbles to bits upon being exposed to outside air. |
| 64 | ** Double Subverted in "Big Adventure in the Eccentric Mansion". The treasure--a big honking diamond--is very real, but removing it from its place causes the nearby spring to overflow and flood the entire area. Only putting it back allows the group to leave safely. |
| 65 | ** In the anime-only "Meiji Restoration Mystery Tour", the treasure turns out to be a letter talking about the ideals of the Meiji Restoration. Of course, the villains that are also trying to get what they think will be find a treasure rich enough to buy the whole country are not impressed. This is somewhat subverted when it is revealed that the letter had a rare and valuable stamp with a printing error on it that would have been worth a lot if the villain had not torn it up. |
| 66 | ** Another filler story featuring a criminal attempting to drain Osaka castle to find what he believes is treasure, before Conan and Heiji come across him, reveal that the letter claiming that treasure lies there is a forgery written in hopes of weakening the castle's defenses and thwart his plans. (The letter itself does have archaeological value, as it was most likely written near the end of the Sengoku period, but considering the criminal illegally trespassed into a historical location and kidnapped Kazuha, he won't be able to capitalize on it.) |
| 67 | * Subverted in ''Literature/DirtyPair'' episode 15. A treasure hunter looking for treasure in the ruins of an alien planet has hired Kei and Yuri to help him find the treasure and fight off a rival treasure hunter in exchange for a share of the profits. It turns out that the treasure is a piece of paper with writing in the alien language, which Kei and Yuri can't read but the treasure hunter can. He claims that it says is "there is a value in cooperating with each other", referring to it taking three people to open the door to the room where it was. Yuri [[LampshadeHanging comments that "this is the typical ending to a treasure hunt"]]. However, the writing was actually instructions on how to use some LostTechnology and thus highly valuable; the treasure hunter lied about it to avoid paying them. He does later send them flowers - an entire roomful of roses. |
| 68 | * In the last volume of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' manga, a chapter was about Nobita, Doraemon, Giant, and Suneo competing in finding real treasures as 2 pirate teams. The treasures ''were'' there before they decided to make it as a pirate game. However, the very pirate game (which consisted of them sailing at sea and shooting cannonballs at each other) delayed their treasure hunting, resulting in someone having already dug the treasures ahead of them. |
| 69 | * ''Manga/DragonBall'': |
| 70 | ** DoubleSubversion when the leader of the villainous Red Ribbon Army sends his {{Mooks}} after the title artifacts so that he can make a wish, something that could potentially grant the army vast powers and resources. His subordinates are not pleased to discover that his planned wish is to be taller, so much so that his right-hand man decides to kill him and take over. |
| 71 | ** When Goku climbs Korin Tower for the first time so that he could follow the legend and drink the Sacred Water in order to become stronger. Of course the sacred water was actually just normal tap water, and the strength Goku gained was from climbing the tower and training with Korin.[[note]]Of course let's not worry about the Ultra Divine Water.[[/note]] |
| 72 | * ''Manga/FrierenBeyondJourneysEnd'': Chapter 69 sees Frieren's party being hired by a dwarf who had spend hundreds of years searching for a stockpile of a legendarily delicious liquor. He ultimately finds the stockpile, but needs a mage to break the seal on the door. After three months of work, they finally manage to break the seal on the door and obtain the stash of alcohol... at which point the dwarf discovers that the legend was ''wrong'', and the liquor in question is actually cheap rotgut. Frieren was actually aware of this, as the legend and the stockpile were both created by a bored elf [[TheGadfly for the sake of their own amusement]]. She does discourage him from hiring them to break the seal, but doesn't tell him the truth about the liquor, presumeably because she figured he would want to sample it and see for himself anyway. To his credit, the dwarf takes the discovery in stride, noting that while the booze itself might've been a bust, it was still fun getting drunk with his friends. |
| 73 | * In the ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' manga, Akito's prized box contains... nothing. Akito was told that it contained her father's soul, but it was a lie from the person who gave it to her, purely to give a scared and lonely child the hope that she could still hold onto a part of their father. |
| 74 | * Frequently serves as the [[AnAesop Aesop]] to many episodes of ''Animation/GuardianFairyMichel''--mostly due to the fact that the Black Hammer Gang seem completely unable to understand [[LiteralMinded the metaphorical use of the word "treasure."]] Being villains, [[AesopAmnesia they never "get" it.]] However, the "treasures" are always appreciated by someone else, meaning their antics to "steal" them [[VictimOfTheWeek nonetheless disrupt the lives of many innocents.]] |
| 75 | * [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''Manga/HunterXHunter''. Near the end of the Greed Island arc, the group defeats Razor and goes up a tower to gain an ultra-rare card, Patch of Shore. Their NPC guide talks about how there was no treasure in a particular cave and that its beauty and holiness was the real treasure...after which the ''patch of shore'' near the cave ''becomes a card''. The card ''isn't'' particularly valuable in and of itself, but it ''is'' strategically valuable, in that it is necessary to beat the game. |
| 76 | * Part 3 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has Polnareff encounter a wish-granting genie ([[JackassGenie that turns out to be an enemy stand.]]) When it's revealed that the genie grants wishes by just making things out of dirt, he's disappointed when he realizes that the treasure hoard he jokingly used his first wish on turned out to be worthless. |
| 77 | * ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'' has a DoubleSubversion: The team finds a treasure box as part of a competition, and [[ThePowerOfFriendship considering the theme of the show, it's pretty clear what it's going to be]]. But then they open it...and it's a series of rare trading cards with the Celestial King's face on them. Not for resale, either. |
| 78 | * ''Anime/LupinIII'': This happens quite often. After all, Lupin might be the greatest thief alive, but he can’t predict everything that will go wrong. |
| 79 | ** Played with in the ''Lupin III'' film ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'': the big "Treasure of Cagliostro" that the Count was after turns out to be some [[UnderwaterRuins sunken ruins]] at the bottom of a man-made lake, which prompts Lupin to remark, "This is a treasure for all mankind. Too big for my pocket, anyway." While it does have immeasurable value from an archaeological perspective and could make for one hell of a tourist attraction, it's only meaningful to the princess Lupin rescued. |
| 80 | ** A number of movies and TV specials that followed, such as ''Anime/LupinIIIOperationReturnTheTreasure'', have had similar non-treasure "treasures" -- possibly largely as a ShoutOut to ''Cagliostro'' which continues to influence the franchise heavily. In ''Anime/LupinIIIStolenLupin'', Lupin rents out a village from its occupants for a day for the sole purpose of tricking the baddies into thinking the "Lupin Treasure" is stored there. One of the guest characters then concludes that the real "Lupin Treasure" is his friendships with the rest of his gang. |
| 81 | ** Subverted in ''Anime/LupinIIITheSecretOfTwilightGemini'': Lupin finally assembles the titular [[MacGuffin split diamond]], allowing a long-suppressed Moroccan tribe the chance to access its ancestral treasure. It turns out to be an empty cave with a message on the wall stating that community is the real treasure. The tribe's princess is content with this, but Fujiko yells in frustration and kicks the wall... causing its facade to crumble. The real secret? The cave's walls are ''covered'' in diamonds under the facade. |
| 82 | ** ''Anime/LupinIIIPrincessOfTheBreeze'' features the gang chasing {{Plot Coupon}}s made of gems, and discovering an ancient lost treasure of gold, paintings, and technology. After the climax, Lupin reveals the object that he'd been trying to steal. A corkscrew. Granted, it's a gold corkscrew, but he was chasing it because it was a treasure that his [[Literature/ArseneLupin grandfather had described, rather than the intrinsic worth of the object.]] |
| 83 | ** ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'' episode [[Recap/LupinIIIS2E3 "To Be or Nazi Be"]]: Hitler's legacy contains the stuff that he didn't want anyone to see, because he was so embarrassed. |
| 84 | ** ''Anime/FarewellToNostradamus'' plays with this too, with Lupin's gang after a book of the prophecies of Nostradamus, which assuming it's an original from that long ago could be expected to be rare and valuable. The [[CorruptChurch Nostradamus Sect]] is after it too, but since they're a ScamReligion they want to destroy it to avoid being exposed, and they never intended to pay the $50 million reward they promised Fujiko. When the treasure is finally found, it turns out that Julia had been doodling all over it while playing in the vault as a child, which made it essentially unreadable and ruined any historical value it might have had. |
| 85 | ** In one Red Jacket episode, Lupin and the gang manage to steal a bottle of vintage wine previously owned by Napoleon and currently owned by the President of the United States, switching it with a similar bottle full of dollar-store wine. Unfortunately for the gang, the wine had long since turned to vinegar and they spent the epilogue gagging on the ruined liquor while over on a diplomatic meeting the Presidents of the United States and France, not knowing any better, drank the wine to celebrate a negotiation and found the wine quite fine. |
| 86 | * Pulled twice in an episode of ''Manga/{{Mahoraba}}'', when the residents of Narutakisou go on a treasure hunt. What they pulled out turns out to be photos of the residents three generations before, along with a note saying that the earlier group went on the same hunt and found nothing but a note that said "Good Job". |
| 87 | * Subverted in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', after the [[strike:Baka Rangers]] low-ranking students in the class go on a quest for a magic book that will let you pass any test. The book exists, but a complicated series of events leads to a FriendOrIdolDecision, and they spend a few days studying the old-fashioned way. They all pass and learn a lesson about hard work or something. All of it turned out to be a XanatosGambit by the Headmaster. |
| 88 | * In ''Manga/OnePiece'': |
| 89 | ** Man-stuck-in-a-chest Gaimon has spent at least twenty years obsessing over a few treasure chests sitting on the top of a small peak he can't climb up. Luffy offers to go up and fetch them, but when he does refuses to give the chests to Gaimon. Gaimon realizes that the treasure he had been looking forward to is already gone but soon decides that at least now he can get on with his life, and really enjoy the island he's been trapped on. |
| 90 | ** In one TV special, the Straw Hat Pirates help the guest find her father's treasure in hope of sharing it. Unfortunately (especially for [[MoneyFetish Nami]]), it was a gigantic pearl, so they couldn't take any of it. Besides, the true value of the pearl is that it is a token of her father's drive for adventure. |
| 91 | ** The first movie - quite possibly the anime directors' own interpretation of the whole Gold Roger MythArc - followed a similar tack, with Woonan's treasure turning out to be the torn flag that marked the last day he ever shared with his childhood friend. He DID, at one point, have all the gold legends said he did, but eventually gave it all back on realizing how unfulfilling it was. |
| 92 | ** Also the treasure called 'One Piece' itself was considered a rumor until Whitebeard confirmed its existence with his dying breath, though what exactly the treasure ''is'' remains a mystery. In addition, Luffy, when given a chance to not only learn that it exists but exactly what it is, vehemently insists on being left ignorant about the One Piece. To Luffy, One Piece isn't the treasure, [[ItsTheJourneyThatCounts the act of trying to find it is]]. |
| 93 | *** [[WordOfGod Oda himself]] has confirmed that One Piece will definitely ''not'' be something immaterial or spiritual, though he's remained equally vague on whether it's anything resembling conventional treasure. |
| 94 | ** The self-proclaimed "Son of Whitebeard" Edward "Whitebeard Jr." Weevil has been hunting crews affiliated with the Whitebeard Pirates to find Whitebeard's treasure. But according to Marco (1st Division Leader), ''there isn't one''. Whitebeard always put his share of loot into his hometown. Weevil got the message and indeed tries to defend his hometown from the Marines. |
| 95 | ** PlayedStraight with the titular artifact in Kozuki Oden's backstory. Gold Roger and his crew, as expected, reach the last island, Laugh Tale and find the treasure, but for some reason began to laugh. Oden and Roger then state that they were too early to find and use it, and indeed have to wait a few decades for the right time. |
| 96 | * A little short story in the ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' manga dealt with the host club trying to find the perfect soup that their principal had sampled when he was younger. Turns out it was a very common soup and that the one giving the soup to the principal would later [[LoveAtFirstSight be his wife]]. |
| 97 | * ''Anime/OutlawStar'': In one episode, the crew recovers a large amount of a valuable mineral from a sunken ship. However, once they go to sell it, they discover that it was low-density and therefore it sells for barely enough to cover the cost of the expedition, leaving them with nothing left over. |
| 98 | * ''Manga/PeterGrillAndThePhilosophersTime'': Vegan Eldoriel and her sister Fruitalia have an inheritance in a magic vault that can only be opened if they work together, but they have been feuding for years. Peter convinces them to make up and they finally open the vault. It is empty except for a hologram recording of their ancestor Vegetalia, who says real treasure is in family bonds. The sisters get really pissed that there was no money, especially since their family was destitute at this time. |
| 99 | * ''Anime/PhiBrainPuzzleOfGod'' deconstructed #2 to #1. A puzzle of the week was designed to reward the solver with a view of beautiful landscape. By the time the protagonist solves it, it has already been destroyed to build leisure facilities. |
| 100 | * ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': |
| 101 | ** There is a rather silly "double worthless" example in the story where Ranma finally reveals himself to his mother. The other half of the story is the attempt to keep his father from taking a family treasure, hidden in a box the whole time, and pawning it. Midway through, Ranma learns it was a martial arts pendant that was only worth about twenty bucks. When Genma finally gets the treasure and takes it to the pawnshop, it's just a ticket from one his ancestors beating him to the punch. |
| 102 | ** In the next story arc, Nodoka herself pulled this on Ranma and Akane (and their suitors) accidentally. She gives her son a gift to give Akane, and after opening it, everyone believes it's an engagement ring. Cue the chases, battles, claims, and flying weaponry before Ranma can ''finally'' give it to her. Turned out to be a pill box with a unique design, containing the medicine for "the hardships that a woman in the Saotome family must endure" (whether she means stress or [[AllPeriodsArePMS menstrual cramps]] is intentionally vague). |
| 103 | ** Subverted in the ''Ranma'' movie ''Big Trouble In Nekonron, China''. Two halves of a scroll that was long ago cut in half are reunited to reveal a precious secret -- which turns out to be a pickle recipe. However, the pickle recipe ''is'' greatly prized by the couple who reassembled the scroll, as one of them is Prince Kirin, literally ''can't'' eat anything ''but'' pickles. |
| 104 | * One episode of ''Manga/{{Spriggan}}'' centers around a formula for an elixir of immortality. Two people end up getting a copy. During the epilogue, the hero visits the girl with the second copy and tells her that his associates translated the formula, and one of the key ingredients is a plant that is now extinct, making the formula useless. A follow-on story that wasn't animated had someone find a sample of the missing ingredient, only to find that each dose of the elixir only restores youth temporarily... and the withdrawal symptoms of missing even a single follow-on dose are potentially lethal. |
| 105 | * Season 2 of ''Anime/StrikeWitches'' had Perrine, Lucchini, Yoshika, and Lynnette find a treasure map [[BeachEpisode in the ocean]]. After searching through a series of caves, they come to a sprawling herb garden. Very precious to the witches who hid the garden ages ago, but with the increased availability of said herbs in the time frame of the series, they had little value left. |
| 106 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'': after an adventure in some ruins, Koji and the Autobots find the mysterious treasure Skybite was after, which turns out to be a picture of Koji and his dad. However, it soon turned out that the picture was placed to disguise the ''real'' treasure, a microchip containing information on Fortress Maximus' location. |
| 107 | * In the anime of ''VisualNovel/TriangleHeart3SweetSongsForever'', the villain is after Fiasse to get control of a secret inheritance she will receive on her marriage or her thirtieth birthday, whichever comes first. When Fiasse eventually gets her inheritance long after the villain is defeated, it turns out to be the deed to a honeymoon villa and a box of home videos. |
| 108 | [[/folder]] |
| 109 | |
| 110 | [[folder:Asian Animation]] |
| 111 | * ''Animation/HappyHeroes'': In Season 7 episode 8, Big M. and Little M. go out to find a special weapon using a TreasureMap to help them conquer Planet Xing. When they finally do find it, they discover it's just a spoon. |
| 112 | * ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': In ''Flying Island: The Sky Adventure'' episode 17, the fish duo win the competition's prize and find it's a bunch of coupons. These probably wouldn't be that worthless, except they're all past their expiration date. |
| 113 | [[/folder]] |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 116 | * Back when ''3-2-1 Contact'' published a magazine in conjunction with their series, they ran a comic art serial titled "Cosmic Crew", which managed to do this trope both ways. After obtaining the final piece of their treasure on earth, the crew received a message about the importance of knowledge... which also added that they had been left some scholarship money. |
| 117 | * A ''ComicBook/{{Bamse}}'' story from 1998 evolves around the gang and two shore thieves looking for a treasure chest in a [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer subterranean maze]]. They find the chest, open it, and inside is... a pancake recipe. |
| 118 | * In one ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' story, the [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]] is after [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler's]] lost strongbox, imagining it to contain scientific and military secrets. As it turned out, the box contained the things Hitler wanted to preserve of his legacy: watercolor paintings, anti-Semitic writings that inspired him, and some personal photos and memorabilia of his UsefulNotes/WorldWarI career. This is another case where, while the treasure isn't what was expected, it still isn't worthless if you actually do some research and try to find the right buyer. Memorabilia from a historical figure as prolific and infamous as Hitler could be worth obscene amounts of money; in the real world, surviving paintings by Hitler sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars despite the fact that he was considered an average artist at best. |
| 119 | * In one of the ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' comics published by Marvel called "Beneath the City of Shadows," Conan fights through an ancient city populated by various monsters (including a strange golem-like creature called Utu that utilizes EyeBeams) to find the fabled Jewels of Abu Dhaak. The jewels are real ... but they're the size of small skyscrapers, and thus useless to Conan. Of course, the jewels are actually of value to Utu, who uses their magical energy to heal the wounds Conan gave him earlier. To defeat Utu, Conan forces the creature [[PhlebotinumOverload to absorb too much energy from the jewels]], causing Utu to explode. |
| 120 | * Zigzagged in ''ComicBook/DarkReign'', Norman Osborne hires the Spymaster to steal a valuable item from Tony Stark's vault. After evading an elaborate security system, Spymaster succeeds and brings the item to Osborne. It turns out just to be a photo of Tony as a child with his parents. But rather than being displeased, Osborne happily takes it and burns it. Turns out Osborne knew all along, he also had additional info - the photo was the only one Tony had of his parents, so destroying it was ForTheEvulz. Spymaster was so disgusted, he promised never to work for Osborne again. |
| 121 | * ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse: |
| 122 | ** Discussed in the Creator/DonRosa story "A Letter From Home". Though Scrooge and the rest find the treasure they came for, Scrooge himself makes it perfectly clear at the end that the real treasure he got from this adventure was the reconciliation with his sister and the letter from his father. |
| 123 | *** In "the Treasury of Croesus", Scrooge discovers King Croesus' money bin. Inside is a chamber where Croesus kept his 'greatest treasure'. Upon opening it, he finds that the 'greatest treasure' is the very first coin Croesus, inventor of money, literally made. Scrooge was less than amused, particularly because he gave up the rest of the bin's contents for the right to it. The coin isn't literally worthless of course, but worth far less than what he just gave up.[[note]]It's somewhat surprising that Scrooge wasn't expecting this, considering the worth that he himself attaches to his "Number One Dime."[[/note]] |
| 124 | *** In "The Universal Solvent", Scrooge's expedition to the center of the Earth leaves him in possession of a large stash of super-pure, super-dense diamonds. However, it quickly turns out that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome super-dense diamonds]] are also ''super-heavy'', too much so to be sold as jewelry. |
| 125 | ** In Creator/CarlBarks' Uncle Scrooge comic "Back to Long Ago", Scrooge and Donald race against each other for a treasure buried on an island centuries ago, only to find that the chest contains nothing but a bunch of dried-up potatoes: at the time, a new and marvelous vegetable unknown to the English. |
| 126 | ** One Danish story had a similar twist, where the treasure turns out to be tons and tons of salt -- which of course was used for money back in ye olden days. |
| 127 | ** Another Carl Barks story revolves around Scrooge buying up all the 1916-issued U.S. quarters, then dumping all except one in the Mariana Trench so his sole remaining coin would become incredibly valuable. After his coin is accidentally destroyed, he goes diving for a new one, only to discover that the area he dumped the coins in is the hiding place of {{Atlantis}}, hidden away from the rest of the world by the almost insurmountable depth. After a long adventure, Scrooge and his nephews manage to escape with a few coins, only for Scrooge to find out back on land that the coins he have are now so rare that the only person that can afford to buy them is ''himself'', making the treasure both incredibly valuable AND effectively worthless. |
| 128 | ** Yet another Carl Barks story subverts this. It features a MadScientist who has invented a way to duplicate gasoline, essentially turning one gallon of gasoline into two. In the end, it is revealed that using his method costs three times the value of the created gasoline. However, Huey, Dewey, and Louie point out that gas prices rise all the time, and sooner or later they will rise enough to make his method economically viable. |
| 129 | ** Scrooge drags Gladstone along on an adventure to find the hidden treasure of a princess. It turns out to be her childhood toys. Strangely enough, while Scrooge is understandably miffed by this turn of events, [[JerkAss Gladstone]] finds it so heartwarming that he's moved to tears. |
| 130 | ** And, of course, there's the fact that Scrooge [=McDuck's=] own greatest treasure is the first dime he ever made, an item with very little intrinsic value, but it's representative of Scrooge's hard work. The fact that it's owned by the richest duck alive is the reason why Magica [=DeSpell=] constantly seeks to steal it, because it allegedly would grant great totemic power to a spell that would make her rich... however, various of her schemes to get it (such as going back in time and taking it from Scrooge when he was a defenseless kid or allying herself with the Beagle Boys) have always made a significant ([[StatusQuoIsGod although temporary]]) dent on Scrooge's monetary worth, nullifying whatever power she ''could'' have obtained from having it in her possession. |
| 131 | ** ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'': Although it's commonly accepted that the Number One Dime is Scrooge's most valuable possession, the end panel of ''The Prisoner of White Agony Creek'' shows there's another treasure that Scrooge considers above everything else he owns. A lock of Goldie's hair. |
| 132 | *** "The Last Sled to Dawson" has the dogsled Scrooge lost to the ice during his Klondike days. When the ice begins to melt in the present story, Scrooge and Soapy Slick race to claim it. Soapy hopes it contains some gold at least, or at best the deed to Killmotor Hill, where the Money Bin is. After much mayhem, the sled's contents are... a change of clothes, some old tools, and a letter and candy for Glitterin' Goldie. |
| 133 | ** In Rosa's "The Three Caballeros Ride Again!", Donald and his friends José and Pancho have a harrowing adventure trying to get home with some barrels of silver found in an abandoned mine. But after the bandito trying to steal the treasure is dispatched, they discover the "silver" is just some leftover mercury from the mining operation. |
| 134 | ** A self-inflicted example: There is a story where Donald detects a radio signal from a stranded alien, and after rescuing the alien Donald is rewarded with a device that can produce infinite copies of any one item of his choosing. Donald foolishly chooses a 100 dollar bill, and realizes too late that any money produced by the device would be a mere counterfeit due to all of them having the same serial number. |
| 135 | * ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}} Annual'' #1 is about the pursuit of AMacGuffinFullOfMoney; a coffin full of banknotes. After numerous betrayals, double-crosses, and murders, the coffin is eventually obtained, but the weather, insects, and vermin have completely destroyed the paper money. |
| 136 | * In a ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' comic starring WesternAnimation/YosemiteSam (in pirate mode), he inherits a parrot that recites a list of instructions that end "then straight down to the sparkling treasure". After finding the correct island and following the instructions (which turn out not to be as clear as they sound) he finds ... a drinking fountain. "I guess it ''is'' like treasure when there's nothing but salt water around." |
| 137 | * ''[[Magazine/{{MAD}} MAD Magazine]]'': in an Antonio Prohias strip, a man finds an apparent treasure map inside a BookSafe. He buys the book, undergoes a hellish expedition to retrieve a buried chest, and opens the chest to find ... the missing pages from the book. |
| 138 | * In ''ComicBook/TheMuppetShowComicBook'', during the "Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson" arc, the Muppets literally tear apart the Muppet Theater in search of the treasure of pirate-turned-vaudeville-performer Peg-Leg Wilson, which turns out to be a collection of old letters. Fortunately, the old stamps on said letters are valuable enough to cover the costs of repairing the theater. |
| 139 | * ''ComicBook/{{Mystique}}'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] burgles the home of The Richest Man In The World (as a favour for her friend Fantomex) and steals his Most Treasured Possession; when she opens the box containing it, it is revealed to be... one of Spider-Man's discarded old costumes. Her reaction is, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!" |
| 140 | * ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' provides us an example of the "treasure is worthless because it's actually a DeathTrap" twist in the "Kitchen Irish" arc: Hated and fearsome Irish gangster Pops Nesbitt hide ten million dollars away. He left to his relatives bits of a code to put together in order to get at his hidden money. The family nearly wipes itself out trying to steal the other pieces of the code, but they eventually call a truce and work together. When they reach the hidden location, they find an safety deposit box with a note that reads "Cunts"... and a ton of C4 explosive that kills them all. |
| 141 | * One of the original ''ComicBook/RichieRich'' comic books plays with the trope. Richie puts something he feels is valuable in a safe while ''explaining to his dog'' that valuables should be kept somewhere safe. So Dollar the dog has the bright idea of digging up his favorite bone and replacing Richie's treasure in the safe with his own. Later, robbers crack the safe...and find the bone. They assume it's a valuable fossil. Their boss disabuses them of the notion ("It's a two-day-old soup bone") by abusing them. Back at the Rich mansion, Dollar is heartbroken...until Richie's dad has the butler toss a few soup bones at him. |
| 142 | * Early in ''ComicBook/Robin1993'', the Cluemaster and his crew hijack an armored car that has picked up worn banknotes from Gotham's banks to be destroyed by the Federal Reserve. Untraceable, unrecorded, totally random serial numbers. He and Robin are mistakenly BuriedAlive due to still being in the car when his accomplices [[HiddenInPlainSight hide it in a pit at a construction site to be filled with concrete]]; it's only then that he learns the Federal Reserve punches holes into each bill before transport. |
| 143 | * In the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' story ''Psychic Psych-Out'', the treasure the bad guy was after turns out to be just a bunch of old recipes, valuable only to their owner Cecelia Fogbottom. |
| 144 | * ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' does this in issue 7. The Freedom Fighters find a treasure map belonging to Uncle Chuck, but aren't impressed -- since Robotnik conquered Mobius, money has no value. Sonic suggests that the treasure might be an invention Chuck made that could help in the resistance, so they go anyway. Robotnik hears about the hunt, and at the end of the story, gets away with the treasure. However, Sonic isn't too upset, having at that moment remembered what the treasure is, and how sentimental Uncle Chuck was. Robotnik was not amused. |
| 145 | -->''[while Robotnik is having a tantrum]''\ |
| 146 | '''[=SWATbot=]:''' I suggest we stay out of his way for few days... Until he calms down...\ |
| 147 | '''Burrowbot:''' ...Or he'll destroy us all!\ |
| 148 | '''Caterkiller:''' Tsk! Tsk! All that trouble over a pair of Sonic's bronzed baby shoes! |
| 149 | * In a ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' story, Spider-Man has a rematch with the burglar who murdered Uncle Ben years ago, in the same townhouse where the Parker family lived at the time. It turns out the reason the burglar robbed the house in the first place was that he had heard that the house was once occupied by a retired gangster who had left a box full of documents in the attic detailing the location of his fortune. After the burglar is taken care of (he dies of fright when Spider-Man reveals his identity to him), Peter asks Aunt May about the box. She says that she and Ben had thrown the box out years earlier, as silverfish had destroyed the contents. |
| 150 | * The ''ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio'' story ''Spirou et les héritiers'' does this with an inheritance. Fantasio and his cousin Zantafio have to undergo three trials (invent something for the betterment of mankind, race in the Auto Grand Prix, and capture a Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}) in order to compete which of them gets the inheritance from their long-lost uncle. In the end, it turns out the uncle was broke and had nothing to leave his nephews -- and so he devised the trials so that the inheritance would be the accomplishments, adventures, and life lessons the two men achieved while undergoing the trials. |
| 151 | * In one ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker'' comic, Woody, his niece, and his nephew run out of gas and seek help at the nearby Red Diamond Mine. Unfortunately, two men are in the process of holding up the place. Woody and the kids are forced to help the robbers and Woody tricks them into letting him overload their helicopter with the diamonds. After the helicopter crashes into the nearby pond, Woody offers to help the prospector recover the diamonds from the helicopter. The prospector reveals it's actually a salt mine and his name is Red Diamond. |
| 152 | * An obscure caricature comic had two archaeologists spending forty years in search of King Solomon's treasure. When they finally locate it, they find an inscription reading "The greatest treasure is to love and be loved". Cue {{Heroic BSOD}} and cardiac arrest. |
| 153 | * A ''Cracked Magazine'' parody of Series/TheATeam from the '80s featured the titular team fulfilling a request from Michael Jackson to find his single silver glove prior to a global television appearance. When the team comes through at the literal possible second, Michael rewards them with a sealed envelope. Expecting a reward of cash, the guys are rather disappointed to find they were given a sheaf of concert tickets. The trope is subverted when BA reminds them that thanks to the (then) obsession with Jackson's music, those tickets can be sold for far more than the face value, making them worth significantly more than the cash equivalent. |
| 154 | [[/folder]] |
| 155 | |
| 156 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 157 | * ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'': |
| 158 | ** Subverted in a story where [[GameMaster B.A.]] tried to play the "knowledge is the greatest treasure" scenario by having the party discover an ancient library. Brian [[RulesLawyer exploits the pricing charts in the manual]], selling the ancient parchments and furniture to collectors and raking in a hundred times what they would have on any normal adventure, much to B.A.'s dismay. |
| 159 | ** In another storyline, the ''players'' find themselves with a worthless treasure -- after they win the TabletopGame/HackMaster Tournament, they discover that the advertised $1500 grand prize is actually a voucher redeemable only for certain specific (i.e. crap that they're trying to unload) [[HonestJohnsDealership Hard 8]] products. The Hard 8 staffer in charge of the tournament had [[LetsGetOutOfHere wisely left]] before this was discovered and a riot broke out. |
| 160 | * ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'': |
| 161 | ** One story has a bunch of criminals who plan to kill the Phantom and steal the treasure that he supposedly owns. The plan involves one of the criminals pretending to be lost in the jungle and being taken in by the Phantom. At one point, he asks if he can see the treasure and when it is shown, he thinks it is complete junk since there is a rusty sword, an old horn, a dusty snake in a bottle, and other items like that. He was looking at Excalibur, the Horn of Roland, the mummified remains of the asp used by Cleopatra to kill herself, and other such priceless antiques. What makes this even funnier is that the Phantom actually introduces every single item in detail as he brings it out and the criminal still doesn't realise their worth. Later on, after his associates are captured and shown the treasure as a courtesy, they realise just how much it was worth. Then the Phantom further reveals that this was his major treasure room and shows them his ''minor'' treasure room which is actually full of the gold and jewels and gems that they thought they would find. |
| 162 | ** Another story has the supposed treasure of Captain Kidder, a legendary pirate who was able to found an entire city for pirates. It turns out that Kidder was broke in the end, and his treasure is just debt notices. That said, the ruins of his city do have historical value. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 166 | * Towards the end of ''Fanfic/TheBestRevenge'', the Flamels reveal that a Philosopher's Stone only works for its creators, making it completely worthless to Voldemort. |
| 167 | * A variant crops up in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13111277/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Secret-of-Atlantis Harry Potter and the Secret of Atlantis]]'', when an Egyptian artefact that was considered ''incredibly'' valuable in the Bronze Age turns out to be a MagicStaff that emits a rather underwhelming low-pressure stream of water, less powerful than what the protagonists can do [[MundaneFantastic with an ordinary wand that can be bought for a few hundred pounds and an incantation they learned as children]]. Anyone hoping to find a ForgottenSuperweapon or something would be sadly disappointed, but luckily our heroes are smart enough to realise that the staff still has immense value as a source of information about what Bronze Age magic practitioners were capable of, especially since it's InWorkingOrder. |
| 168 | * 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. |
| 169 | * Played with in one installment of ''Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook'', when [[VideoGame/DragonAgeII Varric]] runs a ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Gatehouses and Ghouls]]'' campaign for some of the kids and other teachers. They finally reach the dragon's lair and convince the dragon to let them open his treasure chest [[ItMakesSenseInContext in exchange for a cookie]], only to find that the chest is empty. There are words carved inside the lid stating that the treasure is not what they think. Cole realizes that the true treasure of the adventure is the friendship their characters have forged, leading Hawke to sardonically ask, "You mean to tell me that the real treasure is the friends we made along the way?" This turns out to be the password phrase that opens the dragon's ''real'' treasure hoard. |
| 170 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPGLegendOfTheFivePendants'': The eponymous pendants which seemingly are magical are nothing more than ordinary objects which prompts Mario to faint upon hearing this revelation. |
| 171 | [[/folder]] |
| 172 | |
| 173 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 174 | * A variation was used in ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', where the dusty old lamp provided near-infinite possibilities. The various treasures were just the tip of what the lamp could do, but [[SchmuckBait not touching them]] was enforced by the cave- when they are touched, the cave floods itself with lava. |
| 175 | * The eponymous "treasure" in ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailTheTreasureOfManhattanIsland'', the third ''An American Tail'' movie, is this. To summarize, Fievel and his friends find an old encoded map left behind by Native American mice and bring it to an archeologist who organizes an underground expedition. The physical "treasure", as it turns out, is a beaded tapestry that tells the history of the Lenape mouse tribe. The real treasure is the history and culture of the tribe itself. This comes as a disappointment to Tony, who was hoping to get rich, as well as to the villains who wanted to steal it. |
| 176 | * ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCatTheMovie'' had this. The Duke of Zil is outraged to discover that the magical book of power he's spent the movie searching for has nothing but the words "Truth, Love and Wisdom" written on the pages. Played with in that the book ''still'' has the power to kill the Master Cylinder when Felix throws it at him. |
| 177 | * For [[TooDesperateToBePicky a given value of "treasure"]], discussed and defied in ''WesternAnimation/IsleOfDogs'': when two packs of dogs get ready to fight over a bag of trash that may contain food, Rex calls for a time-out and tells everybody that they should open the bag and make sure there's food inside first. Everybody agrees, the bag is opened, and Rex checks the contents and affirms that there's food inside, which is enough for Chief to declare it's WorthIt and begin the fight. |
| 178 | * ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1'' played it straight not once but twice: has the 'secret ingredient' be nothing at all, and the scroll detailing the ultimate technique is blank. In both cases, it's not the secret that's valuable, it's the journey and growth needed to earn the secret that really ends up being useful. Po realizes this after his adoptive father tells him the former, and makes the connection with the scroll shortly thereafter. Tai Lung, on the other hand, is blinded by perceiving the scroll as a reward for all he went through, and doesn’t understand the message. |
| 179 | -->"For something to be special, you just [[MagicFeather have to believe it to be special]]." |
| 180 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{ParaNorman}}'': The main character is instructed by his uncle's ghost to read a certain book on the grave of a witch who had been sentenced to death in his hometown. He assumes it's a spell that will stop the curse from happening. Turns out it's a copy of ''Sleeping Beauty''. Which does postpone the curse for a year. The book really is just ''Sleeping Beauty'', but it was the witch's favorite bedtime story, and somebody from her family has to read it to her to keep her sleeping for another year. |
| 181 | * ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': The ''Hero's Duty'' Medal is the initial catalyst to the movie's plot and possession of it drives a significant chunk of the conflict. It represents Ralph's shallow wish for fulfillment of his desires, but ultimately proves to be an illusion, a lie which causes great damage to be done both to Ralph's own game and to all the games he's visited. It is only after Ralph rejects that lie (i.e. throwing it against the game screen) that he discovers King Candy's deception (the "Out Of Order" sign taped on the other side of the screen falls off and reveals Vanellope is on the side of the ''Sugar Rush'' cabinet. At this point, it ceases to be relevant and is never seen again.) and the way to correct his mistakes and become the person he truly wants to be. |
| 182 | [[/folder]] |
| 183 | |
| 184 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 185 | * In ''Film/{{Casper}}'', Carrigan and Dibs discover a secret message claiming that there's a treasure in Whipstaff Manor; the whole reason that they want the ghosts out of the house is so that they can search for it. However, as [[DramaticIrony the audience learns]] going into Act 3, that message was actually just left over from when Casper and his father would play pirates, and Casper's "treasure" is a baseball glove and a ball signed by Duke Snider. (To be fair, [[https://www.sportsmemorabilia.com/player/Duke_Snider/autographed-baseballs/ that would be worth a bit of money]], but probably not as much as Carrigan and Dibs were expecting.) On the other, other hand, they also find a literal cure for death -- [[DraggedOffToHell not that Carrigan gets to enjoy it]], not to mention that the potion required for the power source would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to replicate. |
| 186 | * Lost Heirloom example: ItWasHisSled. And in ''Film/CitizenKane'', it gets tossed into the incinerator along with the wealthy protagonist's other worldly possessions. Nobody in the story ever finds out what his lost love/lost treasure "Rosebud" meant, though the audience gets the reveal. |
| 187 | * Subverted in ''Film/CitySlickersIITheLegendOfCurlysGold''. Throughout the film, everyone looks for treasure on a map that Curly (the guide from the previous film) had stuffed in his hat. However, when they reach the location on the map, there's a fight with some robbers and Mitch gets shot - but then Duke realizes that they haven't been shot by real bullets. Furthermore, the gold bars in the chest are just iron bars painted gold - and the map they've been following had been copied years ago and used as a trail for a [[TheWildWest Wild West]] style treasure hunt by an amusement park. After everyone leaves, disappointed but wiser, Duke comes by and notes that when his mother mailed the map to Curly, she sent him the missing corner - which details where the gold is really buried. He then drops a gold ingot on the table and says, "It's got friends." |
| 188 | * [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'': A wealthy king hires Conan and his band to [[SaveThePrincess retrieve his daughter]], who was brainwashed by [[BigBad Thulsa Doom]], and explains why he is willing to pay them any price they ask for the rescue of his daughter: |
| 189 | -->"There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child." |
| 190 | * ''Film/Destroyer2018'': Not the final (or even the main) twist of the film, but when Erin Bell goes to collect the remaining bag of cash from the bank robbery, she discovers that a hidden dye pack had gone off and rendered most of the cash unusable. |
| 191 | * Subverted at the end of ''Film/{{Duplicity}}'', when the protagonists realize they've been duped out of $35 million by their bosses. |
| 192 | -->'''Ray:''' At least we have each other.\ |
| 193 | '''Claire:''' It's really that bad, isn't it? |
| 194 | * ''Film/EscapeToAthena'' (1979). The head of the Greek Resistance goes with some escaped [=POWs=] to loot a mountaintop monastery of gold plates worth $2 million. Instead they find the Germans have converted the monastery into a V2 missile silo, and the only plates they find are a crate of cheap metal ones with Hitler's face on them. At the end it's revealed the Resistance leader had the gold plates stashed at his headquarters (the local whorehouse) the entire time -- he just wanted their help in blowing up the German base. |
| 195 | * ''Film/AFieldInEngland'' is built around this trope, right down to a darkly comic moment where a character declares that the true treasure is friendship (as the entire rest of his treasure-hunting party is dying around him). |
| 196 | * In ''Film/Firestorm1998'', Shaye discovers that the $37 million he broke out of prison to recover has been burned up in the fire that was started to cover his breakout. |
| 197 | * In the original ''Film/GameOfDeath'', all of the suggestions and rumors about what is on the highest level of the pagoda (a scroll with an inspirational message, nothing, a mirror, etc.) invoke this. This would be in line with Creator/BruceLee's philosophy. However, none of these are canon. The Mirror as final reward was used in the Bruce Lee co-written film ''Film/CircleOfIron'' (aka "The Silent Flute") where the protagonist, Cord, goes on a quest to find the book of all the wisdom in the world. |
| 198 | * ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' loves to play with this trope: |
| 199 | ** In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', once opened, TheArkOfTheCovenant seems to contain nothing but sand and to therefore be worthless to the Nazis seeking it for divine powers... until the wrath of God comes pouring out of it and utterly destroys the Nazis present. |
| 200 | ** In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', the HolyGrail is real enough treasure, but it can't be brought out of its resting place without bringing the whole place down around it. Indy's father realizes, at the end, that the real treasure he gained out of the whole mess was, in his words "Illumination" (and, unspoken, the reconciliation of his relationship with Indy). Plus, now that they know where it is, it becomes more important to escape alive so that they can return to set up a proper dig site and recover it. |
| 201 | ** Used straight in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull''. While there ''is'' plenty of gold (among other valuables) in El Dorado, the real treasure turns out to be knowledge that makes your head explode -- literally!. |
| 202 | ** In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'' the titular antikythera is actually capable of doing as advertised and allow people to time travel… unfortunately, the gadget is set to travel to one period of time only, and that is the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, which makes it utterly worthless to the Nazi BigBad who was planning to [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel use it to make the Third Reich live again]]. The Romans promptly kill him while he is having his VillainousBreakdown. |
| 203 | ** Comes up in ''[[Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye]]''. Indy and Remy spend the entire film hunting for the titular diamond. After numerous double-crosses (including once by Indy's love interest, who is promptly murdered by yet ''another'' searcher) and escapes they finally arrive at the treasure... only to find it gone and a plain, worthless stone in its place. Remy is understandably furious because of how costly the search has been for all parties. The stone itself, however, is hinted to be another clue as to the diamond's whereabouts, and Remy becomes obsessed with tracking it down while Indy gives up and returns home to become the AdventurerArchaeologist we know and love. Ironically, this is revealed to be the same diamond Indy was trying to acquire from Lao Che in the ActionPrologue of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''. So Indy ''does'' manage to acquire it after all... for all of a few minutes before it's lost in the scuffle while trying to escape Lao Che's club. |
| 204 | ** Overall, the movies tend to zigzag the trope a bit; in each of them, there actually is a treasure, it ''is'' valuable... but it's valuable in a way that is either inconceivably dangerous (usually of the face-melting variety) or which makes it more-or-less inaccessible, meaning that Indy usually doesn't end up with it. However, the endings of the films nevertheless make it clear that while Indy doesn't get to walk away with the treasure, he does come away with some kind of deeper understanding or valuable relationship that compensates for it. |
| 205 | * In ''Film/KingKong1976'', Wilson leads an expedition to Skull Island convinced its remote location hides scores of priceless mineral deposits. When he's told there's a massive oil field on the island, Wilson is ecstatic and wires his company that he's "bringing in the big one." At which point, the geologist breaks it to Wilson that the oil is going to need a little "fine-cooking" before it can be refined...in 10,000 years. |
| 206 | * ''Film/TheLostCity'' is about adventure romance novelist Loretta Sage who gets kidnapped by eccentric billionaire Fairfax, who discovered that the lost civilization she wrote about is real, based on the records of her late archeologist husband. Fairfax is particularly interested in the fabled "Crown of Fire" from her novels, supposedly a ruby crown worn by one of its past rulers. When they find the queen's tomb at the movie's climax, they find the Crown buried with her. It turns out to be a headdress of once-red seashells that her consort made while courting her. Not only are there no jewels, but even the shells have either rotted away or lost their red color by this point, leaving behind nothing of modern value. While Loretta appreciated the sentimentality of it, Fairfax...did not. |
| 207 | * In the ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' MadeForTVMovie ''The Lost Treasure of Atlantis'', a villain is forcing [=MacGyver=] and friends to find the titular treasure, and they succeed. However, the treasure is simply a cache of ancient scrolls of lost knowledge. The villain is extremely upset and, apparently, too stupid to realize that this find tops the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Collectors, museums, and governments would have paid through the nose to buy them, had the villain not destroyed the crumbling vellum (the scrolls were thousands of years old and not stored in the sort of climate-controlled environment needed to keep them from decaying) through careless handling. |
| 208 | * In ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior'', the tanker truck Max is driving, and the biker gang spends half the movie chasing, was filled with sand instead of the petrol they were expecting, after Max volunteered to be a distraction to let most of the besieged oil pumpers get away with the real fuel. |
| 209 | * Example of the first kind: ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'' is "The ... uh ... stuff that dreams are made of." The real thing was replaced by a worthless copy, or it never even really existed in the first place. |
| 210 | * ''Film/NationalTreasure'' has the main characters enter the room where they believe the treasure is, only to find...nothing. They conclude that the treasure was already discovered and could now be anywhere in the world. What follows is a HeroicBSOD for Ben and an inspirational speech by his father about the friendship and fun they had along the way, and how they will never stop looking for the treasure. Cue a EurekaMoment where Ben finds a hidden door that leads to the REAL treasure: a huge vault of historical artifacts. The film works hard to tell us the importance of history, and all that Treasure was still worth more than "friendship" - enough more that ''half'' of one percent was enough to buy the main characters a mansion and a Ferrari. |
| 211 | * ''Film/OAutoDaCompadecida'' has Chicó and Rosinha being able to retrieve a piggy bank her grandmother left for her as inheritance on the condition of getting married. Once they break it, since [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_currency Brazil has changed currency a few times]], the money stored inside is no longer legal tender. |
| 212 | * At the end of ''Film/PainAndGain'', Lugo (currently wanted for kidnapping and murder) goes to the offshore bank of his crooked businessman victim to empty his account. The contents of the account add up to about $280,000 US dollars, which in 2013 is a decent chunk of money but not really enough to long-term sustain an international fugitive with expensive tastes. He then goes to the safety deposit box hoping for more and is massively disappointed to find it only contains sentimental items (bronzed baby shoes and old photos of what are likely the businessman's parents). Additionally, stopping to retrieve the deposit box delays him long enough for the police to catch up to him. |
| 213 | * ''Film/ThePhantom1943'': After a lot of double-crossing and several deaths, the expedition finally finds the treasure vault in the Lost City of Zoloz -- and it's empty, except for a note indicating that one of the Phantom's ancestors found the Lost City already and moved the treasure to his own cave for safe-keeping. The Phantom offers to let the archeologists examine it once the villains have been dealt with. |
| 214 | * Given a nod to in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl''. |
| 215 | -->'''Jack:''' ...and you're completely obsessed with treasure.\ |
| 216 | '''Will:''' That's not true. [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne I'm not completely obsessed with treasure]].\ |
| 217 | '''Jack:''' ''[presumably thinking about Elizabeth]'' Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate. |
| 218 | * In the ''Film/{{Popeye}}'' movie, Bluto spends the duration of the movie searching for Poopdeck Pappy's hidden treasure; when it is found, it is revealed to be... keepsakes of Popeye's childhood and canned spinach, kept and treasured by Poopdeck Pappy, which becomes meaningful when Pappy becomes an adoptive grandfatherly figure to Swee'Pea. |
| 219 | * Inverted in ''Film/RaceForTheYankeeZephyr'' (1981). The protagonists think they're after a crashed World War II aircraft with a cargo of medals worth a few thousand at most, and are puzzled as to why a gang of well-armed mooks is so determined to find it. Unknown to them the plane contains ''the entire payroll for the US South Pacific fleet'' -- approximately $50 million in gold bullion. |
| 220 | * In ''Film/RichieRich'', [[BigBad Lawrence Van Dough]] spends the entire movie trying to break into the Rich family vault to steal their money. However, by the time he actually makes it in, Van Dough finds that [[AllThatGlitters it's full of nothing but keepsakes, photo albums, and "priceless possessions"]] that hold sentimental value to the Rich family, but hold no kind of monetary value. As the senior Richard Rich explains, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the family's actual money is in banks, stocks, and real estate]]. |
| 221 | * In ''Film/StreetFighter'', as Bison starts losing, Dee Jay decides it is time to say ScrewThisImOuttaHere and runs off with a large suitcase full of cash. He and Sagat later crack open the suitcase and discovers it's full of Bison's own currency -- which had never been recognized in any international currency exchange, and now that Shadaloo had fallen, never will be. |
| 222 | * ''Film/Titanic1997'' begins with Brock Lovett and his crew of treasure hunters trying to find a valuable diamond that allegedly went down with the titular ship. When they managed to find the safe from the owner's suite within the wreck, they ecstatically opened it only to find water-damaged documents and banknotes. Lovett was initially distraught until they discover Jack's preserved drawing of Rose wearing the diamond which leads to Rose contacting the crew (she was watching a live news report about it) and kick off the movie's plot. The film ultimately ends with Lovett giving up on finding the diamond after hearing Rose's tragic story about the disaster and feeling it was disrespectful to the victims to keep searching the wreck for it. Rose herself had the diamond on her person the whole time and throws it off Lovett's ship, returning it to the ''Titanic''. |
| 223 | * Applies to a Disney Cruises DVD called "The Treasure of Disney Cruises". A family is tasked with finding pieces to a treasure map aboard the ship, and at the end they go to dig it up on Castaway Key. However, it turns out the chest actually contains pictures taken of them on their vacation, and not any actual treasure. They don’t seem too upset about this, however. |
| 224 | * DoubleSubversion in ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'': the title characters are hired for a raid on a ship that they think contains ridiculous amounts of highly valuable cocaine — except there isn't any. It turns out the actual treasure on the ship is a person who can identify infamous international crimelord Keyser Soze and the raid's actual purpose was to kill that witness and while the raid fails to achieve this goal, the police can't capitalize on this information either as Soze (in his current alias as Verbal Kint leaves the station before they can hold him on any further suspicion on his involvement of the events of the film and it's implied that that's the last those officers see of him. |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 228 | * In the thriller novel ''The '44 Vintage'' by Creator/AnthonyPrice, several groups with conflicting aims fight it out over a MacGuffin but it all turns out to be for nothing, because the hiding place in which it had been stashed several years earlier flooded every winter, ruining the paper and rendering the MacGuffin illegible. |
| 229 | * In the backstory of ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', the Tolnedran Empire invades its neighbor Maragor for its vast mineral resources (which the Marags were treating as WorthlessYellowRocks) and slaughters the entire population with the exception of some prisoners sold into slavery, which becomes significant several centuries later. Only the god Mara really doesn't react well to the genocide of his people, and afterwards treasure hunters (or anyone else) who enter Maragor are driven insane by a perpetually mourning god and the spirits of his massacred followers. |
| 230 | * ''Literature/BigfootAndLittlefoot'': In "The Gremlin's Shoes", while making a delivery to another sasquatch cave, Hugo and Boone come across a sasquatch named Rufus P. Winterberry who's out in the woods on a treasure hunt. They decide to help him on his hunt, and eventually they find a treasure chest hidden amongst some twisted tree roots. The chest contains a bunch of old toys and a book that Rufus used to play with with his old friend Sam. |
| 231 | * The ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' kids book ''Secret of Certavus'' has Glatorian Gresh searching for the treasure of a famed Glatorian of the past, apparently the secret to his success. What he finds is a book saying that a warrior's mind is their sharpest tool. |
| 232 | * Played straight in ''Literature/TheBoxcarChildren'' book ''The Mystery of Pirate's Map''. The children find the last piece of a famous treasure map and try to get to the treasure before a greedy millionaire, who's spent his whole life trying to find it and stepped on a lot of people in the process. As they're digging for the treasure, they tell him that he can have whatever they find. The treasure chest contains a single coin and a note from the pirate about "real treasure". |
| 233 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]: Played with in the novel ''The Ultimate Treasure''. The Doctor arrives at the end of the treasure hunt ''expecting'' this, and finds a room with three doors: one leading to escape, one leading to money, and one leading to "the ultimate treasure." There actually ''is'' an amazing fortune behind the second door... in an airtight vault [[SchmuckBait that re-seals as soon as anyone enters it.]] The real treasure, such as it is, is behind the third door... and it pretty much is this, as the Doctor was expecting. |
| 234 | * ''Literature/TheDreamsideRoad'': The secret room under Enoa's shop does not hold the Dreamside Road. [[TheRemnant The Liberty Corps]] is looking in the wrong place and launched their plan in Nimauk for almost no reason. |
| 235 | ** Partially subverted as the room does contain a key to [[ArchaeologicalArmsRace the Dreamside Road artifact trove]], wherever it is actually hidden, as well as training films made to teach Enoa to become a [[FunctionalMagic Shaper]]. |
| 236 | * The ''Literature/FearStreet'' novel "The Rich Girl" has friends Sydney and Emma finding a bag with thousands of dollars in cash inside. When their friend Jason goes after them, the girls accidentally kill him. However, Jason soon seems to haunt Sydney, driving her to a total breakdown. At which point, it turns out Jason is alive and he and Emma were doing all this to drive Sydney nuts so they could have the money for themselves. They go on a shopping spree...only to discover that on closer examination, the money is fake. |
| 237 | * ''Literature/GarrettPI'': In ''Deadly Quicksilver Lies'', Garrett gets caught up in a GambitPileup between several factions, all of which are seeking clues to find the buried treasure of a historical BarbarianHero. Although Garrett does manage to find all the books containing the clues, he returns them to the library from which they were stolen rather than look for the treasure himself ... which turns out to be the sensible option, as the Dead Man reveals that the clifftop where the hero's wealth was buried had crumbled into the sea generations ago. |
| 238 | * Subverted in ''The Ghost in the Noonday Sun'' by Creator/SidFleischman: A crew of pirates dig up a chest that they expect to contain treasure, but turns out to contain only cannon balls, which wind up going overboard during the subsequent argument over whose fault it is that they've wasted their time. Shortly afterward, the pirate who buried the chest shows up to recover it, and is horrified and enraged when he learns what's happened -- the "cannon balls" were solid silver, which he'd melted down and recast to smuggle it past the authorities. |
| 239 | * The novel ''Literature/TheHeroFromOtherwhere'' used this in an odd way. When the two boys who have become friends through saving the world come back to claim the reward promised them, they're not only told that the true treasure is friendship, but they're given a ''choice'': they can either keep the "reward [they] already have" -- or they can go back to their own world with the gold and jewels they were expecting, but as enemies, either because of magic or because HumansAreBastards and the treasure would have gotten in the way of their friendship. |
| 240 | * In ''Literature/TheIslandOfSheep'', the MacGuffin is an engraved tablet left by a dead explorer who was seeking a fabled treasure; one side bears a message with the date of his death and a statement that he had "happily found his treasure", while the other is a long passage in an obscure Asian script presumed to describe the location of this treasure. At the end of the novel, after the treasure hunters have been defeated, Sandy reveals that he's found somebody to translate the second side of the tablet, and it's a Muslim spiritual text. |
| 241 | * In ''The Last Treasure'', there is a family treasure (silver spoons made and signed by Paul Revere) at the end, but the main characters find out that there was a greater treasure hidden: the first names of the original family's children spell out SMITH TREASURE, signifying that the children of the original family and their descendants are the real treasure of the family. Also explained by the very reason why the family patriarch built the treasure houses in the first place: the first two were for his twin 8-year-old sons, who died in a fire, and his son who fought and died in the Civil War. The father's last words to the latter son was that he goes to fight without his blessing. An aunt explains that the patriarch probably buried the treasures as a way to tell his son that he loved him. |
| 242 | * In the picture book ''The Littlest Angel'', all the angels in Heaven are asked to bring gifts for the birth of Jesus Christ, the best of which will become the Star of Bethlehem. The titular angel, a small boy, offers a box of his earthly possessions from when he was human: a broken dog collar and some shiny pebbles. Because Christ will also be a small boy with simple interests, the Almighty chooses this gift over all the others. |
| 243 | * In Creator/DanBrown's ''Literature/TheLostSymbol'', the Ancient Mysteries of the Freemasons turned out to mean the Bible, whereupon most of the intrigue [[ShaggyDogStory goes to the dogs]]. |
| 244 | * A kids' novel, ''The Mystery of the Empty House'', had the main characters find what was described in an old letter as "the book and other treasures," but it didn't seem very treasure-like to them: just an old dictionary and several sheets of paper covered in gibberish. Then they ''decoded'' the writing, discovering that it was a couple of letters of great historical significance -- and a ClearTheirName for the ancestor of some of the kids. He'd become infamous as a Tory, but it turned out he'd actually been one of UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington's best spies ... and one of the letters was ''from'' Washington, detailing just how valuable this agent was. |
| 245 | * ''Literature/MegLangslowMysteries'': ''The Nightingale Before Christmas'' is set in an interior decorator show house, which was 'donated' by the bank, years after it was seized via foreclosure from a family that went bankrupt living way beyond their means. At one point, the college-age daughter of the original family turns up; since she was single-digits age when the family went bankrupt (and seems to have developed some mental health issues since), and the father had a habit of building secret compartments in 'dead space' in the house, she thinks that her parents oft-repeated phrase "All our money's in the house" is literal, and she takes an axe to the walls to find her parents' stash. Meg, who's a home-owner herself, recognizes the phrase as one she and her husband used to explain why they had a huge, three-story house on a small farm yet didn't have any spare money - the bulk of their income went towards the mortgage. |
| 246 | * The namesake shop in ''Literature/NeedfulThings'' is full of worthless treasures, thanks to the glamour of the store. In a more literal sense, Ace Merrill finds a map from his dead grandfather that he thinks must mark where Pops buried his riches. When he digs them all up, all he finds is weird porn, expired coupons, and a collection of rare (but not that rare) coins only worth a few hundred dollars. |
| 247 | * ''Literature/RaiseTheTitanic'' centers around salvaging the wreck for a rare ore needed to fuel a weapons system. All the evidence showcases that it was dug up decades earlier by miner Joshua Brewster whose crew was killed by French agents. He put it on the ship before it sank. But when the vault is finally accessed, everyone is stunned to find nothing but worthless rocks. A few weeks later, hero Dirk Pitt brings several characters to a small cemetery in England. It turns out that when he wrote down the ore "was in the vault," Brewster meant the ''burial'' vault of the final member of his crew. Pitt lampshades that had the ship not sunk and/or the paranoid Brewster been more straightforward on his clues, the ore would have been found but instead, everyone jumped to the wrong conclusion of it being on the ''Titanic''. |
| 248 | * ''Literature/TheRedemptionOfAlthalus'': Althalus breaks into the strongbox of a famously rich man, only to find it packed with worthless scraps of decorated paper. Subverted when he later learns that he's in a country that recently started issuing paper currency and that leaving the man's fortune piled up, unburgled, on the warehouse floor has made him a local legend. |
| 249 | * One of the earlier ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' novels has two rats infiltrating the titular abbey and persuading a pair of children to show them its "secret treasure." When they discover the inevitable box of worthless trinkets (because the children have different opinions about what constitutes treasure), one rapidly turns violent... |
| 250 | ** In ''Loamhedge'', Bragoon and Saro go hunting for the secret which will supposedly cure Martha's inability to walk. When they find the tomb where the secret was supposed to be buried, it has rotted away and they can't find it. They make up a piece of doggerel to bring back and make Martha feel better. In the meantime, it turns out that her disability is purely psychosomatic, brought on by the obligatory childhood trauma, and she managed to stand up to fight back when she and the head of the Order were attacked. |
| 251 | * ''Literature/{{Riptide}}'' by Preston and Child is about a gang of treasure hunters digging for the treasure stash of a notorious pirate (based on the Oak Island money pit), which supposedly includes a cursed sword. While the treasure turns out to be real, the sword turns out to be insanely radioactive (so much so that you're doomed to die of radiation poisoning just by getting close enough to see it), making the entire treasure horde both impossible to retrieve and too irradiated to be worth anything. To top it off, whoever built the pit realized the sword was an ArtifactOfDoom and rigged it so that it would collapse if someone tried to remove the sword, making the treasure horde a double deathtrap. |
| 252 | * In the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story The Musgrave Ritual, the treasure turns out to be "a linen bag which contained within it a mass of old rusted and discolored metal and several dull colored pieces of pebble or glass." It was discarded as worthless. However, Holmes works out that they are the broken pieces of the ancient crown of the Kings of England, lost since the time of the English Civil War. |
| 253 | * ''Literature/SimonArk'': In "The Treasure of Jack the Ripper", Simon gets involved with a mystery involving a journal supposedly written by UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper and a map to a treasure he is supposed to have stolen: a statue of a golden lion studded with fifty diamonds which was intended as a gift for Queen Victoria on her Golden Jubilee. However, when the statue is located, it turns out to be gilt metal and the diamonds glass. Simon theorises that the man who commissioned the statue was a ConMan: raising money from wealthy merchants and arranging for the fake statue to be stolen before it could be delivered while he pocketed the contributions. |
| 254 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'': In [[Literature/TalesFromAGalaxyFarFarAwayVolumeOneAliens "The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku"]], several bands of pirates on the planet Ponemah pick up a signal from the long-lost Separatist cruiser ''Obrexta III'', which was said to have been carrying a cargo of great value to Dooku at the time of its disappearance. As Dooku was known to be the richest man in the galaxy at the time of his death, naturally the pirates set out for it... but when Sidon Ithano, the titular Crimson Corsair, and his crew finally get to the treasure, they find out it's a HumanPopsicle: specifically, [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars clone medic Kix, who was being taken to be interrogated by Dooku as to what exactly he'd found out about Order 66 and if he'd told anyone else]]. It's not a total loss for Ithano and company, however: Kix joins their crew, and Ithano turns up three weeks after the rest of the crew's escape from the wreck with the cruiser's data core, containing the locations of every Separatist base in the galaxy, including some that have yet to be plundered even after over fifty years. |
| 255 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 256 | ** ''Literature/HanSoloAndTheLostLegacy'' involves Han and Chewie getting involved with a bunch of treasure-hunters looking for the lost treasure of Xim the Despot, a pre-Republic warlord who once ruled a mighty empire and reputedly left behind an immense (but possibly mythical) treasure. They wind up finding the "treasure", but it turns out to be a large stockpile of stuff that was vital and hard-to-find strategic war supplies back in Xim's day but has long since become obsolete or common as dirt. |
| 257 | ** ''Literature/MillenniumFalcon'' plays with this trope while also featuring an ItsTheJourneyThatCounts in the form of the titular starship's backstory. The treasure turns out to be The Insignia of Unity from the Galactic Senate, hidden by those who stole it largely for its symbolic value. By the time the treasure is discovered, however, the trope is subverted, since the insignia has become a sought-after collector's item in the years since its theft. Ultimately, this trope is double-subverted when the insignia the treasure hunters find turns out to be a fake. |
| 258 | * In Elisa [=DeCarlo=]'s ''Strong Spirits'', the villainous Cockcroft plots to summon the ghost of a long-ago psychic and force it to reveal the missing contents of a damaged manuscript reputed to bestow supreme power. When the ghost finally does appear, he irately confirms Cockcroft's misdeeds before witnesses, then admits that the manuscript was a hoax all along: something he'd cooked up to ensure his reputation would persist after his death, even though he never actually achieved the greatness it'd boasted of. |
| 259 | * The novel ''Literature/{{Tarzan}} and the Forbidden City'' features a hunt for a fabulous treasure known as "The Father of Diamonds". In the final chapter, the casket is opened to reveal a lump of coal. [[Music/TheyMightBeGiants "Carbon in its ordinary form is coal,]] [[ViewersAreGeniuses crush it together and diamonds are born."]] |
| 260 | %% * The old ''Literature/TheThreeInvestigators'' children's novels contained versions of this periodically, as well as subversions where someone, usually Jupiter, would go, "Well, the expected treasure wasn't here, ''but''..." |
| 261 | * The protagonists of ''Literature/TheTwelveChairs'' spend much of the novel tracking down a set of ornate chairs where an aristocrat had hidden her jewelry from the Bolsheviks. Tracking down the now-dispersed chairs takes them across much of 1927 Russia and brings them all to grief, which proves needless when they discover the last chair is empty: the jewels had been found by pure accident months ago, and the people who found them had promptly sold them and used the money to fund a public works project. |
| 262 | * In the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' novel ''Hammer and Anvil'', an Order of the Sisters of Battle learn that the titular Hammer and Anvil was in Sanctuary 101 when it fell to the Necrons and go all out to get it back. A Mechanicus Magus assumes that it must be some powerful twinned archeotech relic and betrays them in an attempt to get to it first for reverse engineering. It is later revealed that "The Hammer and Anvil" is the title of one of the Sister's primary holy books, and what they were talking about was the original manuscript, handwritten by the Order's patron saint: priceless to the Sisters, only of historical interest to anyone else. |
| 263 | * Subverted in the ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'' supplemental story ''Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania''. [[GentlemanAdventurer Jak]] tracks the Survivor's Treasure to an oasis in [[OurGiantsAreDifferent Koloss territory]], discovering a metal chest full of metal spikes hidden deep underwater. These spikes are precious to Koloss because they're required to make new Koloss, but they're useless to Jak, who was expecting gold. Then he realizes that this silvery metal chest that hadn't rusted or tarnished after centuries underwater is made of aluminum, which, during this [[TheWildWest Wild West]]-esque era, is [[TruthInTelevision even more valuable than gold]]. |
| 264 | ** The spikes themselves are also a subversion. They're [[BloodMagic Hemalurgic spikes]]; Hemalurgy is the lost Metallic Art of stealing someone else's [[LiquidAssets attributes like strength or magic]] by piercing them through the heart with a metal spike and then granting those attributes by lodging that spike into the recipient. It's the only known way to grant someone Allomancy or Feruchemy without being born with it, at least until ''Literature/TheBandsOfMourning'' show a nonlethal way. |
| 265 | * In Creator/JamesThurber's ''The Wonderful O'', the island's treasure turns out to be the word "freedom". In this case, the islanders did their best to make it clear from the outset that there were no real jewels. |
| 266 | [[/folder]] |
| 267 | |
| 268 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 269 | * In an episode of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'', a "mad-scientist" doctor invents a machine to make gold. Mob guys force him to make gold for them, until he tells them to make $100 worth of gold, they need to provide him with $200 of platinum. |
| 270 | * In Japanese detective series ''Deries/{{Aibou}}'', one of the detectives buy a supposedly haunted house. Turns out the "ghosts" are actually the daughters of the house's original owner, trying to scare people away so they can look for their deceased (formerly rich) father's greatest treasure--it is, of course, keepsakes of the girls themselves. |
| 271 | * In the ''Series/AnnieOakley'' episode "Annie Finds Strange Treasure" a shot and dying {{prospector}} tells Annie that he finally found "riches"..."right where I started." The men who murdered him naturally thought he meant mineral wealth. In reality, he'd stayed at a Catholic mission when he first started prospecting, and after all these years realized that true riches were his in God's grace and spiritual peace. |
| 272 | * In the Dutch children's series ''Series/BassieEnAdriaan'', one of the seasons has them go on holiday in Greece. While diving, Bassie finds a stone tablet with strange writing. When they call their friends back home and ask them to translate the tablet, the regular villains overhear them and partial translations suggest it is gives the location of sources of wealth and/or power. In the end, however, it turns out to be just a philosophical message about the greatest treasures one can have: happiness, freedom, health. |
| 273 | ** In another episode they are sent on a treasure hunt that requires them to look up friends from their childhood. In the end, it turns out that there is no treasure and being reunited with these old friends is the purpose. |
| 274 | ** In yet another story line, the heroes and villains were chasing after a treasure of the Dutch East India Company. When the villains find it, it's a chest full of pepper, which actually is the kind of valuable a 17th century trade ship would be carrying. The heroes carry the chest home anyway, where they find out that underneath the dirt, the chest is richly decorated with gold. |
| 275 | * The series finale of ''Series/BetterOffTed'' had Veronica helping the founder of Veridian Dynamics search for a stash of corporate secrets he hid decades ago so that he has enough leverage to keep from being forcibly retired. However, when they find the secrets it turns out to be things that have been public knowledge for years like "smoking causes cancer." |
| 276 | * ''Series/TheBionicWoman'' [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructs]] this trope. A room supposedly containing a doomsday weapon holds [[AsTheGoodBookSays only a plaque quoting Isaiah 2:4]]--"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." Far from convincing humanity to disarm, however, [[ImproperlyParanoid everyone assumes the threat is real]], and [[GodzillaThreshold are preparing to resort to countermeasures with catastrophic outcomes]]. Crisis is only averted when Jaime discovers the truth and reports that the doomsday weapon is a lie. |
| 277 | * A particularly stupid variant occurs in the finale of ''Series/{{Bonekickers}}''. Putting aside the many other flaws of the series, Magwilde has been hunting for the ancient sword Excalibur, and the final episode reveals that a secret organization has been hunting it as well, led by a mysterious individual heavily implied to be a ghost. The team finds the sword, the villain picks it up...and then they declare that it's "just a sword", never mind that it survived for centuries, is linked to multiple world-changing events, and is CLEARLY GLOWING when they find it. The sword then breaks, the villain vanishes like a ghost, and the team toss the broken sword back where they found it. [[SarcasmMode What an epic finale.]] |
| 278 | * In the [[TheTeaser Cold Open]] for an episode of ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', Jake receives an inheritance of one million dollars worth of stock... for Blockbuster Video[[note]]Blockbuster Video was once THE go-to place for rentals, but it has steadily declined in an era where it has to compete with streaming services such as [=RedBox=] and Netflix. Today, there is only one Blockbuster still active in a small town in Alaska.[[/note]]. |
| 279 | * Subverted in an episode of ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}''. During a murder investigation, Castle and Beckett find a cellar from the prohibition era that still holds a large number of whiskey bottles. While this seems like an anti-climax, Castle points out that this particular whiskey is worth a fortune in the present day and ample motive for murder. |
| 280 | * The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" features the study group and Professor Duncan indulging Abed in a claymation fantasy quest to find the true meaning of Christmas. When Abed finally finds it: |
| 281 | -->'''Abed''': It's the first season of ''Series/{{Lost}}'' on DVD.\ |
| 282 | '''Pierce''': ''That's'' the meaning of Christmas?\ |
| 283 | '''Abed''': No, it's a metaphor. [[TakeThat It represents lack of payoff]]. |
| 284 | * ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': |
| 285 | ** In "White Gold," two crooks kill a young pizza chef because they think he is transporting a fortune in cocaine. However, what they assumed were bricks of cocaine were actually bricks of mozzarella cheese. |
| 286 | ** In "Death House," legend tells that a rich inventor left a treasure behind in his apartment, which he had paid lots of money for it to remain untouched for decades after his death (the lease finally ran out in 2009, which is why one VictimOfTheWeek -- a sleazy real estate agent that snuck into the apartment to appraise it before it hit the market -- was inside to begin with). Turns out that there was never a treasure -- the inventor wanted a rival of his dead bad enough that he used his last days to turn his apartment into a DeathTrap-filled monstrosity that wouldn't have looked out of place in a ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' or ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' entry and unleashed the treasure rumor in the hopes that the man would try to break in eventually. |
| 287 | * An episode of ''Series/TheDeadZone'' has some criminals track down a plane that crashed several years earlier and which was carrying valuable cargo, but they don't know what sort of cargo. It turns out to be thousands of ([[TechnologyMarchesOn now outdated]]) computer chips. |
| 288 | * Played with in an episode of ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' where the twist is that there ''was'' a treasure. An ocean explorer finds the location of a wrecked ship with research indicating nothing of value on board. He then comes up with a scheme where [[SpringtimeForHitler he oversells investors]] up to 1500% more than the cost of an expedition to look for gold on the wreck. As nothing is on board, he can tell the investors it was for nothing while pocketing $14 million. However, just as he's getting ready to go, a researcher shows him a pirate's log indicating there ''is'' gold on board the ship, meaning he'd have to pay out ten times whatever treasure he finds. It forces him to kill the researcher then arrange for another explorer to get to the wreck first and clean out the gold so he has an excuse to explain why he couldn't find anything. |
| 289 | * Played with in the ''Series/FraggleRock'' episode "The Lost Treasure of the Fraggles": Gobo and Red find a map purporting to lead to the fabled, titular "lost treasure of the Fraggles", which Red hopes will be diamonds. After the usual series of adventures, the [[FiveManBand usual gang]] find the treasure, which turns out to be a music box. Fraggles being inherently musical beings, this is considered to be, in fact, a valuable treasure -- one which, unlike material wealth, can be shared without losing its value. (A prophetic comment on music sharing, perhaps?) |
| 290 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 291 | ** Used to close out Daenerys's Season 2 plot. The Spice King's vault is opened so she can claim its contents for herself, but it's empty--the vault was built simply to create and maintain the illusion that he was wealthy. He and [[FaceHeelTurn Doreah]] are locked inside to die of starvation while the Spice King's BigFancyHouse is looted of its expensive fittings to provide Daenerys with what she needs. |
| 292 | ** In season 7, Tyrion convinces the Unsullied to launch an attack on Casterly Rock as he believes taking the home of the gold mines that power the Lannister armies will be a huge blow. But Tyrion is unaware of what father Tywin told Cersei: The mines ran dry years ago and the Rock is basically just a hunk of useless land. Thus, Cersei has no problem just letting it go while she sends her forces to attack and pillage the one House that still has plenty of wealth. |
| 293 | * In ''Series/GhostsUS'', Trevor thinks he can help Sam by letting her get access to his top three stocks: Circuit City, Enron and Blockbuster Video. |
| 294 | * A third season episode of ''Series/{{Harrow}}'' had the episode's killer orchestrate a double murder and fix a game tournament, in order to take possession of a time capsule that held a rare stamp. But the time capsule turns out to have been improperly laid, allowing moisture to get into the capsule and destroy the stamp. |
| 295 | * An episode of ''Series/HawaiiFive0'' had the murder of an archaeologist who had been interviewing a man years earlier who had claimed to be part of a pirate crew who robbed a fantastic treasure from the Hawaiian governors of the time and hidden it. The Five-0 team soon tracks the killers to the house where they're digging up the basement, both dying in the shoot-out. When they get the chest, it contains only a pair of silver candlesticks. The team discover that the "pirate" was only a child when the raid happened, had been fired for stealing the candlesticks from the museum, and made up the pirate story to make money, not realizing how many people would pay for his lies. |
| 296 | * ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'' has an odd variant of this trope. Near the end of the series, the Gokaigers have gathered all 35 Greater Powers and have finally unsealed the MacGuffin of the series, the Greatest Treasure in the Universe - a device that could grant them their heart's desire. They're about to use it before they realize there's a catch - doing so would ''erase'' the powers of the Franchise/SuperSentai from existence, meaning that there would have been no Super Sentai at all. After the Zangyack make their second major attack, SixthRanger Gai decides that they ''should'' use it, but is quickly talked down by the others, showing off their CharacterDevelopment in the process, but leave him the choice of if they really should or not. Gai's decision? Apologize to his heroes for falling down the DespairEventHorizon, then ''destroy'' the treasure. |
| 297 | * ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Kate masterminding a bank robbery to get a toy plane out of a safety deposit box probably qualifies. |
| 298 | * ''Series/TheMagician'': Inverted in "The Man Who Lost Himself", where three crooks seem to be going to extreme lengths to discover the location of the relatively small sum of $24,000 stolen in a military payroll heist in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It turns out the cash is in the form of 'Aloha money' - money overprinted with the word 'Hawaii' in case the Japanese overran Hawaii. Now [[RareMoney valuable collectors' items]], $24,000 in uncirculated bills is now worth $1.6 million. |
| 299 | * In the ''Series/{{Minder}}'' episode "Bury My Heart At Walham Green," Arthur Daley helps an old lag find his hidden loot in return for a 25% cut. However, when he tries to spend it, he finds that nobody accepts old green £1 notes anymore, having been replaced by the £1 "gold" coin. Arthur, never usually handling anything smaller than a £20 note, was unaware of the change until the time limit on changing the notes for coins had expired. |
| 300 | * ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': |
| 301 | ** In "Benedict Arnold Slipped Here", the killer murdered an elderly woman in order to uncover a hidden box in her home, containing what he believed to be a letter from General George Washington that would prove that Benedict Arnold was not a traitor to the American Revolution. The document in question turned out to be an angry letter from Benedict Arnold's mistress. |
| 302 | ** In "Night of the Coyote", the killer's motive turns out to be locating the hidden loot of a stagecoach robber. When the treasure is finally uncovered, it turns out to be a chest of bonds for a company that went bust in 1905. |
| 303 | * ''The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults'': Geraldo Rivera was going to find out what was in UsefulNotes/AlCapone's vault and furiously hyped up the event. When he finally opened it, all it contained were a couple of glass bottles and a piece of scrap paper. It wasn't even an open space that might at one time have held a treasure that had already been removed; the "vault" was part of the foundation of a building Capone had owned, so it was just concrete surrounding fill dirt with a bit of garbage mixed in. It was valuable to Rivera all the same - not what was in the vault, but the PR and hype he'd generated around opening it. |
| 304 | * ''Series/PieInTheSky'': "Doggett's Coat and Badge" revolves around a struggle for possession of a unique and extremely valuable bottle of wine. During the climactic confrontation, as all the interested parties are arguing about who gets to keep it, Crabbe suggests they split it evenly and uncorks the bottle before anyone can stop him. Into the ensuing shocked silence, he explains that the bottle is of too modern construction to be the genuine article; it turns out the bottle they've spent decades fighting over is a fake whipped up by one of the previous owners after the original was accidentally broken. |
| 305 | * An episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap2022'' has Ben leap into one of a trio of sisters who go seeking a treasure supposedly found and left by their late father who provided behind individual clues to its location to all three of them. Eventually they find a hidden, locked box that, when opened, contained nothing but a note from their father lamenting the time that he spent away because "the real treasure is at home with family". Subverted when that line turned out to be the final clue: he had already taken and stashed the actual treasure at ''home'' behind a picture of his ''family''. |
| 306 | * ''The Cursed Hand'' of ''Series/ShakespeareAndHathawayPrivateInvestigators'' has this plot twist. The Russian mob spends all episode hunting down the fortune of a defector (and killing his identical twin brother) only for the riches he spoke of to turn out to be the drawings of his young son, who died when he was five. |
| 307 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 308 | ** Both subverted and played straight in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E18TheChase The Chase]]". The ''Enterprise'', the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Cardassians all piece together a long and convoluted mystery and end up finding... a message recorded by the last of an ancient race that seeded their worlds with humanoid life, encouraging them all to live together in peace. Picard sees this for the marvel that it is and later learns that the Romulan commander shares his perspective, but the Klingon and Cardassian representatives find it worthless and are furious that this was all there was at the end of the trail. |
| 309 | ** {{Subverted|Trope}} in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E12WhoMournsForMorn Who Mourns for Morn?]]". Quark gets his hands on Morn's treasure, only to find that it's nothing but bricks of [[WorthlessYellowRocks worthless gold]]; all the valuable, unreplicable [[{{Unobtainium}} latinum]] had been drained out. (Thanks to 24th Century replicator technology, gold lost a lot of its financial value; only its aesthetic appeal and industrial uses remained.) It's not, however, a total loss for Quark: the whole thing was a ploy to get numerous people off Morns back while preserving his wealth and for his help pulling it off, Morn gave Quark no small amount of latinum. Quark also notes that some "backward" worlds still use gold for money and immediately suggests ways Morn could flip the leftovers from his scheme for a profit. |
| 310 | * In one episode of ''Series/StepByStep,'' the Lamberts take a vacation to Hawaii, where J.T. and Cody find a treasure map. After following the clues, they try digging for the treasure where the directions end. After some fruitless digging, Cody sees that the spot has a perfect view of the sunset. He reasons that the view is the treasure since it couldn't be owned. |
| 311 | * On ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', the cast spent an episode hunting for treasure hidden by Muriel's old boyfriend, a famous thief. Eventually, they open Muriel's locket and find a message that says "To Muriel: You are my greatest treasure." Muriel grouses, "That's what guys say when they're too cheap to spring for the good jewelry." |
| 312 | * ''Series/TaiyouSentaiSunVulcan'' has one episode where the villains go after pirate treasure, using a MonsterOfTheWeek with MentalTimeTravel powers on the descendant of the pirate. When he finds the treasure, it turns out to be a letter detailing how [[TheStarscream a treacherous underling]] stole the treasure beforehand. |
| 313 | * Subverted on ''Series/TopGear'': When a challenge ends with something other than success, the presenters try to claim the "experience" of participating was worth more than actually winning it. Considering Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond are two of the most competitive men..... ''in the world''.... you can imagine tongue is firmly in cheek when they say this. |
| 314 | ** In the Season 13 Mallorca classic car rally, they arrived too late to be in contention, so they concluded by saying they didn't really care about the result since they'd fallen in love with their cars and had bought them for themselves. |
| 315 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': |
| 316 | ** 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.]] |
| 317 | ** Another example occurs in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E24TheRipVanWinkleCaper The Rip Van Winkle Caper]]". Four thieves who've stolen a cache of gold put themselves into suspended animation. Upon waking up in the distant future, they fight/betray each other over it only for the viewer (the last of the gang dies of exhaustion before getting a ride) to find out gold is worthless in this new future (because it can be manufactured). |
| 318 | * The fourth season of 90s Creator/{{CBBC}} show ''Series/UncleJack'' had the title character getting mixed up in the search for the treasure of UsefulNotes/{{Cleopatra|VII}}'s Tomb, which numerous parties are determined to find (some because of its historical significance, others just so they can sell it). It turns out to be... wheat since food was the most important thing in AncientEgypt. Amusingly enough, this was actually foreshadowed from the beginning, as the reason Jack was in Egypt in the first place was to see an old scientist friend who was studying some 2,000-year-old wheat that had been found at a dig. |
| 319 | * ''Series/{{Westworld}}'': |
| 320 | ** One of the android hosts is the bandit Hector Escaton who steals the safe from the saloon. At the end of Season One he's shown that the safe is actually empty, as his storyline always ends with him getting killed (either during the robbery or [[NoHonorAmongThieves by his own gang afterwards]]) so there's no need for the Westworld technicians to put anything in it. Even Hector's nihilistic worldview is shaken by this revelation. |
| 321 | ** The Man in Black (William) is in Westworld hunting for a so-called "Maze," which he believes to be some sort of hidden level in the park. He kills and tortures his way across the park, hoping that finding the Maze will give new meaning to the park (and to his own life), which he's grown bored of. In the end, he finds out that the Maze was not a physical location, but rather a metaphor designed to [[AlternativeTuringTest help the hosts gain sentience]], and he ends up disappointed and dejected. At least until the rebelling hosts shoot and wound him, which gives William the new meaning he's been looking for, now that the stakes are higher and humans can die for real. |
| 322 | * ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' once had Xena and Gabrielle, along with the master thief Autolycus, hunt for what proved to be the Ark of the Covenant. Finding the Ten Commandments inside, Xena and Gabrielle got the message; Autolycus didn't, finding prohibition against theft and covetousness to be rules no one could live by. |
| 323 | [[/folder]] |
| 324 | |
| 325 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 326 | * The 60s-era anti-war song "One Tin Soldier" tells the tale of two neighboring communities: a peaceful kingdom on a mountain and the inhabitants of a nearby valley. The mountain people have an [[PoorCommunicationKills unspecified]] "precious" treasure "buried deep beneath a stone" in their possession, which inspires [[GreenEyedMonster deadly envy]] in the valley folk. They demand the riches, and the mountain people happily offer to share it instead--but the greedy valley residents turn angry, wanting nothing less than ''all'' of what they believe to be "tons of gold." They promptly massacre the entire mountain kingdom and turn over the stone to claim the treasure... which turns out to be nothing more than an inscription of three words: "[[{{Irony}} Peace On Earth.]]" |
| 327 | -->''Now the valley cried with anger\ |
| 328 | "Mount your horses, draw your swords!"\ |
| 329 | And they killed the mountain people, so they won their just rewards\ |
| 330 | Now they stood beside the treasure, on the mountain dark and red\ |
| 331 | Turned the stone and looked beneath it...\ |
| 332 | [beat]\ |
| 333 | "Peace on Earth" was all it said...'' |
| 334 | [[/folder]] |
| 335 | |
| 336 | [[folder:Myths & Religion]] |
| 337 | * TruthInTelevision: After executing the Pope, the prefect of Rome demanded that St. Lawrence hand over the wealth of the Church. Lawrence asked for three days to gather everything. At the conclusion of the three days, Lawrence presented to the prefect the poor and suffering and claimed that these were the treasures of the Church. The prefect was not pleased. He ended up having Lawrence cooked to death. Lawrence had the last laugh, however: he supposedly asked them to turn him over because he was done on that side. He's now the patron saint of students, chefs, tanners... and comedians. |
| 338 | * ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' subverts this when, after a harrowing trip, Tripitaka and company finally receive the scriptures they were questing for, only to open it and find out they were blanks. Fortunately, this inspection happened not far from the reward givers, so Trip (or rather, Wukong) immediately went back to lodge a complaint...turns out the assistant in charge of the scriptures, miffed that he didn't get anything from the pilgrims, cheated them out of spite. They are promptly given the proper scriptures this time. |
| 339 | [[/folder]] |
| 340 | |
| 341 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 342 | * ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey:'' The treasure hunt in the episode "The Treasure of [=LeMonde=]" leads to a cave with a box that contains "the greatest treasure" -- a Bible. But that was okay because the one in the party who found it was a greedy jerk who left the girls tied up in an attic to get to it first. |
| 343 | * ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': It happens to Miss Brooks ''twice'': |
| 344 | ** In "Indian Burial Ground", Miss Brooks and Walter Denton believe they've discovered a missing Arapaho Indian burial ground on Mr. Conklin's vacant lot. It turned out Harriet Conklin used the area to bury broken toys donated to Mrs. Davis' charity drive. |
| 345 | ** In "Rare Black Orchid" Walter Denton enlists Miss Brooks to borrow the school Geiger counter. Walter discovered his shoe was radioactive from uranium. Walter's uranium hunt ends when he discovers he had stepped in the school's uranium sample. He tries to make Miss Brooks split with him the $10 cost of replacing it. |
| 346 | [[/folder]] |
| 347 | |
| 348 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 349 | * ''Roleplay/WeAreOurAvatars'': Upon finding the treasure chests on the [[Manga/OnePiece Island of Rare Animals]], [[VideoGame/BioshockInfinite Elizabeth]] opens the chests with a lockpick and it turns they are empty. Gaimon is relieved as he can't spend the money on anything because he would abandon his friends. |
| 350 | -->''[Elizabeth opens the chests Mana had retrieved from a very tall pillar with a lockpick]''\ |
| 351 | '''Gaimon:''' Oh, thank you a million times, miss!\ |
| 352 | ''[Gaimon opens the chest now that it is unlocked]''\ |
| 353 | '''Gaimon:''' ...\ |
| 354 | ''[Gaimon looks shocked and the others look inside the chest]''\ |
| 355 | '''Gaimon:''' [-...they are empty.-]\ |
| 356 | '''Mana:''' ...Aw.\ |
| 357 | '''Elizabeth:''' ...Huh. That's...quite a surprise.\ |
| 358 | '''Joseph:''' Oh...\ |
| 359 | '''Gaimon:''' [-Actually... I have thought about this before... it was a possibility, but... I always try not to think about it too much...-]\ |
| 360 | ''[Gaimon begins to tear up]''\ |
| 361 | '''Elizabeth:''' ...\ |
| 362 | ''[Elizabeth consolingly pats Gaimon on the fro]''\ |
| 363 | ''[Gaimon sobs for quite a while]''\ |
| 364 | '''Gaimon:''' [-But... I suppose... this is better this way, maybe...-]\ |
| 365 | '''Elizabeth:''' Why is that?\ |
| 366 | '''Gaimon:''' What... what would I do with this treasure anyway?\ |
| 367 | '''Elizabeth:''' ...That is a good question. [[HumorMode I don't suppose you could buy a ship off of this island anyways.]]\ |
| 368 | '''Joseph:''' A Good question, Gaimon. Maybe the real treasure is the time you spent with your new friends?\ |
| 369 | '''Gaimon:''' I'd never want to leave this place. I couldn't just abandon my friends.\ |
| 370 | '''Elizabeth:''' I'm sure they'd feel the same way.\ |
| 371 | ''[Elizabeth smiles innocently]'' |
| 372 | [[/folder]] |
| 373 | |
| 374 | [[folder:TabletopGame]] |
| 375 | * In the 2E ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module "Eye Of The Serpent", the body of a lowland barbarian is found on a mountain peak, with a map purportedly leading to the titular jewel. The "jewel" in question doesn't even exist; rather, the shaman who'd tasked the barbarian to retrieve it had misinterpreted an earlier culture's ComingOfAge ceremony, in which youths would climb the mountain to view the nearby river's snake-like curves. The "Serpent's Eye" is merely an island in its wide delta, ironically where the shaman himself lived. |
| 376 | ** Discussed in the first edition, but ultimately subverted. The narrator states that even if the treasure the heroes set out to find isn't there, almost any dungeon crawl can be made profitable by looting things like weapons, magic items, monster corpses, furniture, scrap metal, and in the case of higher level dungeons, the doors (which are likely made from something like mithril or adamantite and quite heavily enchanted.) |
| 377 | * Subverted in a ''Pyramid'' article for ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Low-Tech'' about the spice trade. The opening vignette has a group of bandits raid a caravan, and discover their haul is nothing but a pile of grey seeds. One bandit begins grinding them into the dirt in frustration, until the smell reminds his colleague of his time in the royal kitchens, and he realises they're holding a fortune in ''peppercorns''. |
| 378 | [[/folder]] |
| 379 | |
| 380 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 381 | * ''Theatre/CatOnAHotTinRoof'': This occurs during the pivotal scene where Brick confronts his father Big Daddy in the basement of their Southern mansion. In it, there is a treasure trove of items that his father had bought over the course of his career as a businessman. Big Daddy discusses the value of these items, then goes on to say how his overall business empire is worth over 10 million dollars, and how he plans to one day turn it all over to his family to control. Brick, outraged at Big Daddy's love of personal wealth, destroys a great deal of these items to show it means nothing to him and that he only wanted his father's love. Big Daddy tells his son that he does love him and that he would do anything for him or give him anything he ever wanted; the reason he is giving all these things away is that he grew up in humble origins where his father was poor and all he ever left him before he died was a useless uniform from his time served in the Spanish-American War and that he will leave behind a more valuable legacy than his father left him. Brick argues that Big Daddy's father left him more than just an old uniform, he left behind many happy memories and love for his son and that maybe the reason he died laughing was that he was happy that he had his son by his side. The realization that the true gift he needed to leave behind for his family was love-- and that he didn't resent his father for leaving behind nothing of value, since love was something that he always had-- reduces Big Daddy to tears. |
| 382 | * DoubleSubversion in ''Theatre/JohnTartagliasImaginocean'', a glow-in-the-dark theatrical production about three fish who are friends and go on a treasure hunt after finding a treasure map. When they get to the end and seemingly find no treasure, they decide that the adventure they had and their friendship was the real treasure. This unlocks the real treasure, which turns out to be... friendship bracelets. |
| 383 | [[/folder]] |
| 384 | |
| 385 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 386 | * A family treasure variation is a side quest in ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura''. |
| 387 | * A variant in ''VideoGame/AtelierRyza2LostLegendsAndTheSecretFairy'': Clifford's character events involve him seeking out a legendary treasure. Said treasure is NOT worthless; in fact, the problem is that it's quite the opposite: it's [[SkeletonKey a magical lockpick that can open any lock]], which Clifford quickly realizes is far too dangerous to allow to exist, so in the end, he asks Ryza to destroy what he spent so long searching for. |
| 388 | * ''VideoGame/BrownDustII'': The Fire Chip in its Story Pack that could have saved the world from its state turns out to be the equivalent of Hot Cheetos. The box did contain a message instructing the heroes on how to do so however. |
| 389 | * ''VideoGame/BugFables'': Downplayed with the [[ImmortalityInducer Everlasting Sapling]], which both the heroes and the [[BigBad Wasp King]] spend the whole game searching for. When they both finally reach it... it turns out to have shriveled up and died after being locked up in the dark for so long. However, the Wasp King eats the one surviving leaf anyway, refusing to let all his work go to waste, and becomes the [[OneWingedAngel Everlasting King]], a powerful being strong enough to conquer Bugaria as is his ambition. Unfortunately for him, the heroes ultimately defeat him in a final battle, rendering his win null and void. |
| 390 | * ''VideoGame/CrossCode'': The initial Trial of Aspiration's reward is "find[ing] your determination and inner strength'', as said by Wise Nemuh: |
| 391 | --> '''Wise Nemuh:''' Now I presume you desire our guidance and the wisdom you came for.\ |
| 392 | '''Lea:''' [nods]\ |
| 393 | '''Wise Nemuh:''' But, you see... by challenging yourself and beating our trial, you have already grown so much.\ |
| 394 | '''Lea:''' ...?\ |
| 395 | '''Wise Nemuh:''' Yes, leading you to find your determination and inner strength... that was our true guidance.\ |
| 396 | '''Lea (annoyed):''' ... |
| 397 | * ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' has the quest "[[SmallNameBigEgo Small Man, Big Mouth]]" for a Streetkid origin [[PlayerCharacter V]]. Kirk, an incompetent [[TheFixer fixer]] and LoanShark, claims to have a hot tip on a truck full of expensive cyberware. After V fights their way through a bunch of high-level [[GangBangers Valentinos]], they open the trunk to find [[AndYourRewardIsClothes a single bootleg of Johnny's Samurai jacket]]. When you return to Kirk, you find out that the whole thing was a trap for him and he's already been shot dead by another disgruntled business partner before you could do the same. |
| 398 | * The end goal of every ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' game is usually presented as obtaining a great ultimate power that many are seeking, but always turns out to be the "honor" of sacrificing yourself as kindling for the First Flame or a variation of it. The 3rd and final game at least doesn't bother pretending that linking the flame is anything other than a gruesome HeroicSacrifice that doesn't solve anything in the long term. This have led to the memetic phrase "maybe the real Dark Souls was the friends we made along the way". |
| 399 | * ''VideoGame/DawnOfMagic'', Russian SoBadItsGood action RPG, has a hilarious one in the third act. One old man NPC tells you about an island full of treasure, and that he can transport you there for a fee. If you pay him, you will get transported to a small island with uranium mines. The two only ways to get out of here is to pay a large sum of money or participate in monotonous fetch quests, where you can die because of radioactivity. And once you get out of here, old man tells you, that if you want to visit Mine Island again, you can always pay him. What a bastard. |
| 400 | * In ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'', the first victim of the killer was holding a locket in her hand when she died. The player spends most of the game searching for it, and the subsequent victims keep passing it along trying to keep it out of the killer's hands. The killer, when confronted, claims that the locket marks him as the Chosen One and that it's part of a ritual to gain immortality. But after battling the killer and moving on to the ''real'' final battle, it turns out that the locket and the ritual were nothing but lies, made up by the game's true villain in order to provoke the murders. |
| 401 | * In Chapter 4 of ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'', Flonne offers Laharl a gift if he helps her find her stolen pendant. The reward turns out to be [[PetTheDog "the opportunity to realize [his] kindness"]]. Laharl is not amused. |
| 402 | * This trope is both played straight and subverted--''simultaneously''--in ''VideoGame/DuckTales.'' In the Amazon level, Scrooge hunts for the long-lost scepter of an ancient king. After he finds it, he leaves triumphant--and a few of the natives who kept it safe remark that it was actually the king's backscratcher, hinting at this trope. The subversion is that the relic is still extremely valuable regardless of its original function, so it doesn't really matter what the king did with it--it's still a jeweled antique worth millions. |
| 403 | * In ''VideoGame/EiyudenChronicleRising'', CJ's family has a tradition where children are sent on a journey to retrieve a treasure more valuable than the one found by their parents. CJ's father discovered a massive Lens during his journey, so CJ is determined to retrieve the humongous Lens from the Runebarrows. After she destroys it to save Isha's life, she sends her father a letter explaining this while noting her "treasure" was the town of New Naveah and her friends. Her father then sends back a letter revealing his Lens was a forgery passed down through the family; the "treasure" he discovered was CJ's mother. The tradition was always about letting the children discover what they valued most, and CJ is free to come home whenever she wants. |
| 404 | * "An Unexpected Voyage," a quest in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' runs this trope through the gamut. In the Imperial City, word gets out that the proprietor of the Bloated Float, an inn run out of a boat in the harbor, has hidden a solid-gold model of a ship called the "Golden Galleon" somewhere aboard. Upon sleeping at the inn, the player character awakens to discover that a gang of bloodthirsty pirates has commandeered the boat to find the treasure. After defeating the pirates, the player has the option of sparing their leader, who offers up her one-of-a-kind sword in exchange for mercy (the player can also kill her and take the sword, but she's very difficult to beat, especially at a low level, which is likely when this quest will occur unless you know about it). The owner of the ship then reveals that there never was a Golden Galleon to begin with--he made up the story to attract customers, only to end up nearly murdered for his trouble. Despite the lack of a "real" treasure, though, the player does receive a sizeable amount of gold and the special sword, so it's certainly worthwhile to complete the quest. |
| 405 | * Paul Luther of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' has traveled to Oublie Cathedral to see a holy relic, the Hand of Jude. However, circumstances inside suggest, and a book later confirms, that it and other similar relics are fabrications meant to lure unsuspecting believers to the cathedral to be slaughtered by a cult operating inside. |
| 406 | * ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' has a variation. The party does find a real pirate treasure of gold and jewels, but Salsa is most excited by a pirate's hat to replace the one that she lost when the party was swept into a river. |
| 407 | * ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'': Downplayed with the treasure hunt sidequest. What’s the reward for finding every clue and digging up the treasure? A cool sword? More gold than you knot what to do with? Nope… It's just a FryingPanOfDoom. Granted, it has the most augment slots of any weapon in the game, and with those you can make it into a genuinely powerful weapon, but still, why would anyone bury a frying pan as a treasure? |
| 408 | * ''VideoGame/Fallout2'': |
| 409 | ** There's a quest to find Typhon's "treasure", which turns out to be a bag full of bottle caps. Granted, this ''would'' have been a big treasure in [[VideoGame/Fallout1 the first game]] and [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas later]] in the ''Fallout'' timeline; but within the constraints of this game's time frame, bottle caps have been phased out as legal tender and are therefore worthless. |
| 410 | ** It's suggested that the GECK, or Garden of Eden Creation Kit, the game's central MacGuffin, was originally intended to be this. Most accounts claim it to be a miracle device with the ability to replicate matter--in reality, it was originally intended to be basically just a farming kit. A very advanced farming kit, one that would allow a Vault community to set up a prosperous bit of land pretty much anywhere, but still, it was going to be mostly just seeds, soil, fertilizer, and a power source. [[VideoGame/Fallout3 One game]] and a few {{Retcon}}s later, and it became a complete aversion, as the GECK is now a full-blown portable WorldHealingWave. |
| 411 | * In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the fabled Treasures of Jamaica Plain, which many people have killed and died for, turns out to be a time capsule containing a lot of pre-war items with the only thing worth taking being a unique baseball bat with a chance of sending your target flying. While most of your partners find the discovery ridiculous, some of them like Curie and Danse find the true value of the artifacts from the days long gone. |
| 412 | -->'''Codsworth''': I imagine there's not many to view these items as "treasure" anymore these days. |
| 413 | ** If you take Piper to Jamaica Plain, she actually comments on this trope: "Personally, I always worried it was some metaphorical crap. 'The real treasure is you!' Pfft." |
| 414 | * A quest in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' asks the player to collect Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle caps with a blue star on them, due to a legend about them being the key to some fabulous prize. People actually killed each other over these caps, and the player is warned about a man named Allen Marks who is particularly bloodthirsty for them. When the player gets fifty of the blue star caps, they are directed to a back room full of worthless "deputy" badges that were part of a Sunset Sarsaparilla promotional stunt before the bombs fell. The real reward for completing the quest is the powerful unique Laser Pistol... found on Allen Marks's corpse. He had previously made it into the room and [[LockedInAFreezer accidentally locked himself in]], suffocating to death since the room is (somehow) airtight. He leaves a holotape behind with his recorded last words, lamenting all the people he killed to get such a worthless prize, and [[KarmicNod admitting he deserved the horrible death he got]]. There is also a large amount of regular bottle caps in the room, which were worthless back before the war but make a nice reward now. |
| 415 | ** In the ''New Vegas'' add-on ''Dead Money'' the Sierra Madre casino resort is meant to house a great treasure. It's both subverted and played straight. The vault houses a large amount of gold bars, but they're so heavy you can barely take any with you (without abusing the system to get around the problem) and the value of gold in a post-apocalyptic wasteland is far below what it would have been a couple centuries ago (although a single gold bar will still probably let you buy out a merchant's entire stock). However, as Elijah points out, the real treasure is the schematics of the resort's technology. The hard light holograms and molecular reconstruction technology it contains could allow anyone to easily conquer and rebuild the world in their own image. |
| 416 | * ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': |
| 417 | ** Darius III's ancestors found the physical vault where Gilgamesh kept his treasures in the Gate of Babylon, but they didn't open it because they thought it was cursed. As soon as Darius III came into power, he didn't fear any curse and opened the vault, only to find it was empty, as the Noble Phantasms within were already distributed around the world. |
| 418 | ** Discussed in Anne & Mary's first interlude. The two go on a hunt for Captain Kidd's buried treasure, eventually tracking it down and defeating his ghost that still guards the site. As they're about to open the chests, Anne wonders out loud if it's just going to end up being one of those "Your experience en route was your treasure" things. Mary promises to bring Kidd's ghost back and torture him if that's the case. |
| 419 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} with the Phoenix Cave in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''. Every chest the party finds in there is empty... because resident treasure hunter Locke has already been through there on his own while searching for the Phoenix Magicite. The party finds him at the end of the cave, opening one last chest that holds the prize. It's still worth opening those chests, though, because once that scenario has concluded, you receive the items he looted from them. |
| 420 | * In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', the party explores Raithwall's Tomb, which is said to contain the treasure of the Dynast-King Raithwall. After they defeat the [[SummonMagic Esper]] Belias, the party presumes that it was the guardian of the tomb's treasures, but Ashe corrects that the Esper ''is'' the treasure, for the Esper is now bound to their command it holds "power beyond measure." Balthier, a SkyPirate who was interested in material compensation for the adventure, quips, "Call me old-fashioned, but I was hoping for a treasure whose worth we ''could'' measure." |
| 421 | * ''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 DragonHoard, 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. |
| 422 | * In the third installment of ''VideoGame/GardensInc'', Mike and Jill spend most of the game trying to resolve the centuries-old mystery of Jill's ancestor, Gareth Maddox, and a treasure he may have concealed somewhere in Europe. Meanwhile, rival landscapers Max and Lydia Perfect are making life difficult for the heroes, in part because they want to get their hands on the treasure themselves. Eventually, the clues lead them into the mountains of Wales, where the Perfects are not happy to learn that the thing Gareth Maddox treasured so much was his beloved wife - the trail leads their descendants to ''her grave''. |
| 423 | * In the ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'' game ''Infiltrating the Airship'', one of the scenarios involves Henry stealing a safe from the airship, which turns out to contain nothing but a teddy bear. |
| 424 | * The English-language localizations of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' games feature a RunningGag in which if you examine a treasure chest you've already opened, you get a funny message. This trope is PlayedForLaughs in ''Trails in the Sky SC'' in which one of these reads, "You find the greatest treasure of all: friendship." |
| 425 | * ''VideoGame/MariosMysteryMeat'', a WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} fangame, follows the story of Vinny's character Sponge going to find meat for Mario and Luigi's spaghetti, going through WombLevel after womb level inside EldritchAbomination Meat the worm only to find out halfway through that Mario and Luigi can't even eat meat due to their [[ItMakesSenseInContext terminal six brain cancer]]. |
| 426 | * ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'': |
| 427 | ** In ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'', Guybrush searches for the Legendary Lost Treasure of Mêlée Island [[superscript:[[TradeSnark TM]]]] as part of his pirate initiation trials. When he finds it, all that's there is an AndAllIGotWasThisLousyTShirt. |
| 428 | ** Likewise, in the GainaxEnding of the sequel ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'', the fabulous Big Whoop treasure turns out to be an amusement park E-ticket reminiscent of those from Disneyland. According to one interpretation, the main character is just a kid in a theme park, all the pirate adventures happen in his imagination, and for a kid, such a ticket would indeed be a valuable treasure. |
| 429 | ** In the fan remake ''VideoGame/MI2LeChucksRevenge'' by Chris Ushko, the Big Whoop treasure turns out to be a tropical theme resort. The protagonist is visibly disappointed, but it turns out the antagonist knew it all, and had his own plans for the resort due to a voodoo curse placed on it. |
| 430 | --->No gold... no jewels... not even a lousy [=McDonald's=] toy. Eons of legend surrounding the fabled treasure had been greatly misleading. In truth, Big Whoop was not a cave of riches, or a mystic fountain of great power and youth... It was a valuable piece of real estate manifested in the form of a tropical theme resort. |
| 431 | * PlayedForLaughs to MetaTwist the player in ''VideoGame/Mother3'' if you encounter a Mystery Metal Monkey, a hard-to-kill enemy that likes to run away and is described in the battle memory as "Fighting this metal monkey will result in quite the experience. Just keep that in mind." You expect it to be the game's MetalSlime, but all you get for fighting it is a message telling you "It was a good experience" and ''no actual experience points''. Even better is the enemy has a chance of dropping a [[StealthInsult Made-You-Look]] to rub salt in the wound. |
| 432 | * ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'': |
| 433 | ** Subverted in ''The Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon'', when Nancy's search for a lost gold mine turns up nothing but an old letter. Which was written by UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and is therefore worth a fortune as a historical document. |
| 434 | ** Subverted as well in ''Curse of Blackmoor Manor''; the fabled Penvellyn treasure turns out to be a hunk of rock, albeit one that's been carefully preserved by the family for centuries due to their medieval ancestors believing it was the PhilosophersStone. However, if the "rock" is indeed a ''meteorite'', and documentation can be found for a Penvellyn ancestor having witnessed its fall, it'd probably fetch many thousands of pounds from a collector. |
| 435 | * In ''VideoGame/NiNoKuni'', this is the result of The Greatest Treasure of All quest. You find a tombstone stating that the greatest treasure is "a life spent with friends." Drippy comments that this is a bit pretentious, and later that it's "a load of old rubbish." |
| 436 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'': The actual legendary treasure behind the Thousand-Year Door itself, which is [[SealedEvilInACan the soul of a demon that once ruled the world before being sealed away]], making the treasure not so much "worthless" as "should never, ever be found in the first place". However, during the epilogue, Professor Frankly finds another treasure chest in the titular door; it contains [[EdibleTreasure a dried mushroom,]] an item that heals a paltry 1 HP and is generally a waste of inventory space. This isn't entirely worthless to Frankly on an archaeological standpoint, because this proves that the people of the ancient city ate mushrooms a thousand years ago. |
| 437 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/Persona5''. A [[MentalWorld Palace]] ruler's Treasure becomes a real object when taken to reality, which the Phantom Thieves often sell for cash. Those objects are usually connected to [[StartOfDarkness how the ruler became distorted in the first place]], making them sentimental items as well. |
| 438 | ** The extorting, wealthy {{Yakuza}} boss Junya Kaneshiro's Treasure becomes a gold suitcase filled with 30,000,000 yen... in fake money. However, the ''case itself'' is still worth a decent amount of money. |
| 439 | ** Another Palace ruler's real-world Treasure is a simple model toy. This is also subverted, though, as it's a somewhat rare collector's item. |
| 440 | ** An item gained from another run subverts it in another way: it ''would'' be incredibly valuable...''if'' anybody knew and believed the true story of its origins. But since they wouldn't understand and for personal reasons it remains with the protagonist and the rest of the Phantom Thieves. [[note]]It's an exact replica of an in-universe acclaimed painting ''Sayuri, as it was painted''. The real ''Sayuri'' was painted by a party member's mother, and is a portrait of her looking down at her young son. The target stole the painting, painted over the baby to create a [[RiddleForTheAges a mystery over what she was looking at]], and sold it. The replica accurately shows the baby and so is technically more genuine than the genuine article, but it's 'well known' that the real painting has a blank space.[[/note]] |
| 441 | * The web game ''VideoGame/PiratesOfTheStupidSeas'' is pretty much ''entirely'' about this trope. It stars Captain Stinkbeard, a pirate on a neverending quest to find treasure of moderate value. Every time you find a treasure chest on an enemy ship, it ends up containing something crappy, like beet-flavored pudding or a collection of oven mitts. At the end of the game, Stinkbeard and his three rival captains battle each other to see who gets to claim the ultimate treasure of Harpy Island... which turns out to be a love card. Because love is the greatest treasure of all, apparently. |
| 442 | * Starting from ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', you can get a variety of rare Poké Balls from past ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}'' games that are otherwise not available normally and/or are insanely rare. These include the Apricorn Balls from ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' and later the Dream Ball from ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite''. ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' onward added the Beast Ball from ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' to this lineup, which unlike all the other reward Poké Balls is a JokeItem due to its abysmally low 0.1x catch rate multiplier. It is virtually useless against anything except guaranteed catches, meaning it exists purely for style points. |
| 443 | * Played with in ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheMiracleMask''. Layton and his friend Randall explored some Azran ruins in their youth, a perilous expedition that ended with Randall falling into a chasm and seemingly perishing. Layton opened the final chamber and found a large stash of treasure, which ''would'' seem like a valuable find; but Randall was after knowledge, not wealth, and Layton did ''not'' consider the wealth worth his friend's life at ''all'', so Layton was heartbroken that it was apparently AllForNothing. Of course, it turns out that wasn't the ''real'' secret behind those ruins, as Layton only uncovers the truth in the present day, during the climax of the game. |
| 444 | ** Subverted and played with in ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheCuriousVillage'', the will of the late Baron Reinhold promises that whoever finds the treasure of the Reinhold family, the Golden Apple, is entitled to the Baron's estate. It turns out that the "treasure" was Baron Reinhold's daughter Flora, but it turns out that only Flora can access a hidden room in the Reinhold mansion, which contains her inheritance, the Reinhold family's vast fortune. However, Layton, Luke and Flora decide [[KeepTheReward not to claim it]], as doing so would shut down all the robots in the village. |
| 445 | * ''VideoGame/{{Quackshot}}'' has a funny one. After spanning around the globe looking for the ultimate treasure, facing Dracula, a Tiger, squashing ceilings and etc., the treasure turns out to be a statue. Daisy was not amused... until the statue was dropped and broken, revealing a jeweled necklace inside. |
| 446 | * In ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', John is forced to help a character named Seth find a treasure he's been looking for a long time to find, one that he's sacrificed everything (including his sanity) for. The treasure hunt takes several in-game missions to complete, and when Seth finally opens the chest he's been looking for for years, he finds a wooden eye. And then it's subverted if John finds the REAL treasure chest in the basement, with the same geographical coordinates as the chest on the second floor. Seth looked at the map the wrong way - namely, up. |
| 447 | * ''VideoGame/RemiLoreLostGirlInTheLandsOfLore'': Lore's aesop for Remi when she asks about a reward for finishing the tutorial. He says: |
| 448 | --> You must endure these obstacles with your own strength... so you can earn something... to make your life more... worthwhile... |
| 449 | * ''VideoGame/SilentDebuggers'': The treasure that was supposedly in the station was actually a lie to lure in victims and turn them into monsters. |
| 450 | * ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' did this. Daccat sets up an entire dungeon filled with monsters, traps, twin fire-and-ice elemental spirits, and a complicated clockwork mechanism; Daccat's treasure is a single gold coin and a note that tells the heroes that they already have the greatest treasure, ThePowerOfFriendship (the dungeon leading to the treasure chest depends on two teams working together and could not possibly be completed by a single hero). Then it's subverted when you find out that the coin's age and previous ownership makes it worth plenty of money. |
| 451 | ** Daccat's message about friendship is also subverted in that neither group had the slightest clue that the other was present until they both reached the treasure, due to a long series of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s that left each with half of the treasure map. They were just ''accidentally'' activating the [[TwoKeyedLock Two-Keyed Locks]] for each other. Repeatedly. |
| 452 | ** Of course, it's also acknowledged that Daccat probably set the whole thing up as a [[TheGadfly playful]] [[TricksterMentor knock on the head]] to any would-be fortune seekers. Aika was not amused. |
| 453 | ---> "Some old bag of bones is laughing at us from his grave while we ran around looking like idiots!! And we're still broke!" |
| 454 | * Team Dark's story in ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' partially revolves around Rouge searching for what is supposed to be Dr. Eggman's secret treasure. After the Egg Emperor is defeated, it turns out to be a storage room full of Shadow Androids, which Omega destroys offscreen after assuring Rouge that the original Shadow must still be out there. |
| 455 | * The plot of ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' ended in a variation on this when the treasure they raised a legendary city for and fought a nearly-all-powerful genie for turned out to be a single flying carpet. It's the one time Eggman technically wins: he wanted the legendary treasure, and he got it. Too bad it can't help him conquer the world... |
| 456 | * In ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', the Breen story arc features Breen warlord Thot Trel and his quest for a [[{{Precursors}} Preserver]] archive hidden in the Orelius sector. He's under the impression that it is a cache of powerful ancient weapons. The player character reaches it first and discovers that it's a library and cryogenic vault containing preserved Preservers. Thot Trel flies into a towering rage when he, too, finds out. This is partly a nod to the ''Next Generation'' episode "The Chase." |
| 457 | * Early in ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'', the party is recruited to help a stuck-in-a-rut innkeeper explore some dangerous ruins for what he claims is "a valuable treasure". The treasure (unsurprisingly) turns out to be some herbs that the innkeeper angrily throws away in disgust. Upon returning to the inn, in another unsurprising twist, his wife is stricken with a malady, and the nearest doctor is much too far away. Cue the hero returning to the ruins and grabbing the herbs, which heal the woman. Everyone learns something valuable except the soon-to-be primary antagonist. |
| 458 | * ''[[https://adventureislands.itch.io/total-party-kill Total Party Kill]]'' ends with the treasure chest with a note saying that the real treasure is the friends made along with way. It's a Ludum Dare game jam submission with the theme "Sacrifices must be made", and requires the use of friendly fire to get through the levels. |
| 459 | * ''VideoGame/UnchartedGoldenAbyss'' has the treasure at the end of the game. While it ''is'' valuable, the problem is that it's highly radioactive, meaning anyone who spends time near it will be poisoned. |
| 460 | * Played with by ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': one room, unlocked by playing a specific song on a piano, contains a red sphere touted as a "legendary artifact". However, you cannot take it, as the game states that you're "[[NoodleIncident carrying too many dogs]]". Lo and behold, you now have an item called an "[[AuthorAvatar Annoying Dog"]] in your inventory; "Use" or drop the dog, and it floats up to the pedestal, "absorbs" the artifact, and just leaves, [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment and no one ever mentions it again.]] The dog is replaced in the inventory by an item called "Dog Residue", whose only function is to fill the inventory with more Dog Residue (which is just random items such as dirty dishes and unfinished jigsaw puzzles, but sometimes a healing item called Dog Salad). While this seems useless, you now have effectively infinite items to sell to Temmie as well as an infinitely renewable healing source. All it takes is patience and you'll eventually be able to get the [[PurposelyOverpowered Temmie Armor for almost no effort.]] |
| 461 | * ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'': The Ankaran Sarcophagus is generally pursued by various vampires, who believe it to to contain an elder vampire. It turns out to have contained the mummy of a very human Mesopotamian king with porphyria, who is later replaced with a buttload of C4. |
| 462 | * ''VideoGame/WildArms'' does this with the Guardian Blade. Your party hears from Jane that it might be in Volcannon Trap, but this turns out to be bait to lure them into battle with a powered-up Berserk. The Guardian Blade destroyed itself in the previous war against the demons because it was too powerful for anyone to control. |
| 463 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'': The ''Future Connected'' epilogue story in the Definitive Edition of the game features a Ponspector sidequest to find an alleged treasure trove of golden mushrooms (which the Nopons believe to be a delicacy) that could hopefully save the Nopon archeology center (which had been going broke). The treasure is real -- but it has been down there so long that the mushrooms have dried out completely and are worthless. Then [[SubvertedTrope one of the Ponspectors discovers actual valuable treasure beneath the dried mushrooms.]] |
| 464 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'': |
| 465 | ** A midgame story objective is finding a new [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Aegis Sword]], said to contain power so dangerous even the [[EmpathicWeapon Blade's]] original wielder, a legendary hero, didn't feel capable of handling it. The sword itself is worse than worthless - in fact, it's a completely inert fake used to bait a deathtrap designed to kill anyone who would want such apocalyptic power for themselves. However, Addam's spirit is also down there and reveals to [[TheHero Rex that the strength of character that helped him reach the sword will also let him draw that power out from Pyra naturally, if he reaches out to her with the same determination.]] |
| 466 | ** An endgame sidequest revolves around an ancient treasure chest that requires eleven rare doubloons to unlock. It turns out to contain 500-year-old letters of debt from one of your party members after he took out a big loan to buy a present for his girlfriend. And yes, you are liable to pay the debt. |
| 467 | ** The end of one sidequest chain involves recovering a treasure from a chest with a level 99 lockpicking check [[labelnote: note]] for reference, the average field skill check in the game will be around 2-5 and any skill has a hard cap of 27; a PhantomThief NPC has to open the chest for you[[/labelnote]] that's surrounded by a bunch of powerful monsters. It contains a dried mushroom. |
| 468 | [[/folder]] |
| 469 | |
| 470 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 471 | * ''WebAnimation/TalesOfAlethrion'': |
| 472 | ** The first short in the series, "The Reward", is based on this trope. Two young men from a small village are given a treasure map and have various adventures and trials as they seek out the loot. Over the course of their journey, they grow from inexperienced and squabbling young men into confident, skilled adventurers and fast friends. When they reach their journey's end they find only an empty room with a huge mirror, showing them their own reflections and how much they've grown over the course of their travels. Subverted after the credits, when the audience is shown that behind the mirror is a vast treasure room filled with gold and gems. |
| 473 | ** Played with even further in "The First Hero", which mixes Type 1 and type 2 together: The empty room ''was'' a banquet hall for gods -- at least until Alethrion killed all the guys inside. The room behind the mirror was also empty before Alethrion got to it. And even then, the gold is only everywhere because he had to dump it all out so he could distract his greed incarnate with it before [[SealedEvilInACan locking it in the chest -- definitely not something one wants to open any time soon]]. In a sad twist of fate, Alethrion ended up coming to the same conclusion as the two adventurers when he saw exactly what his greed did to him. |
| 474 | * ''WebAnimation/TheCyanideAndHappinessShow'' plays this... in multiple ways in their short "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHK4N8QLtBQ High Noon]]", where an Old West {{Prospector}} digging in the desert exclaims that he's found a long lost treasure. As soon as he does a large and increasingly strange group of characters start showing up (by the end in addition to couple of bandits and some other stereotypical Old West stock characters, we've also got a pirate who arrived in a ship despite it being in the middle of a desert, a [[AnachronismStew Vietnam War era soldier]] who descended from a helicopter, an interdimensional InsectoidAlien, and a guy in PimpDuds) demanding the treasure for themselves or whatever cause they represent. At one point a random, normally dressed guy walks in asking if maybe the treasure is friendship, only to be immediately shot by the pirate who declares "No, [[ShapedLikeItself the real treasure be treasure]]!" After a BlastOut which kills everyone, the wounded prospector opens the treasure chest before collapsing... and the only thing inside turns out to be a photograph of everyone who was part of the skit, [[WeUsedToBeFriends enjoying a vacation together when they were younger]]. |
| 475 | [[/folder]] |
| 476 | |
| 477 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 478 | * ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' thoroughly [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zags this one]] with the "Death Volley" arc. First, Doc tries to stop a presumed [[{{Mayincatec}} Inocktek]] DoomsdayDevice from activating. He fails, but instead of destroying the world, the device dispenses a massive tome containing all the secrets of the advanced Inocktek civilization--a treasure trove of archeological knowledge. But when Doc takes the book to a scientist to be analyzed, all the information turns out to be worthless. Then, in TheStinger for the chapter, it's revealed that one of the villains stole the ''real'' copy of that book, right from under Doc's nose, and left the worthless fake in its place. |
| 479 | * ''Webcomic/IngressAdventuringCompany'': In Chapter 1, Robert Wagonthorpe's quest for his family's emerald turns sour when [[https://www.ingress-comic.com/comic/chapter-1-21/ the emerald is a magical trap that turns him into a crystal monster]] when he tries to retrieve it. After fighting it off, Toivo Kissa shatters the emerald irrecoverably with a magic bolt, making the whole quest moot and forcing Robert into a career as a janitor to pay off his family's bad investments in reusable toilet paper. |
| 480 | * ''Webcomic/{{Katamari}}'': When Sherman mentions that there's a treasure at the top of Frosty Peak, Ace immediately starts fantasizing about it being some kind of UpgradeArtifact that'll make him "the coolest guy in the universe, and everyone will love me, and all the hotties will want my number, and I'll get giant biceps like a buff gorilla." Naturally, he isn't pleased when it turns out to be "one of those dumb moral treasures". This is then subverted when [[ButtMonkey Opeo]] finds exactly what Ace was looking for. |
| 481 | %%* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' parodies this trope in [[http://oglaf.com/trapmaster/ "Lair of the Trapmaster"]]. |
| 482 | * Subverted in [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060128 this]] ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' [[BSideComics B Side Comic]]. The "pirate treasure" Torg and Riff dig up turns out to just be a plaque saying, "Life's ''real'' treasure is friendship." Torg and Riff are pissed and walk away. Then, in the last panel, the pirate returns for his gold, gloating, "They never look ''under'' the sign!" |
| 483 | * [[http://static.nichtlustig.de/toondb/081118.html This happens to the pirates]] in the German webcomic ''Webcomic/{{NICHTLUSTIG}}''. |
| 484 | -->"Now, if you ask where the great treasure is, look deep inside yourself and you will find it within the friendships and the experiences that you have gained throughout the long search."\ |
| 485 | "Wow!"\ |
| 486 | "Beautiful!"\ |
| 487 | "Better than Gold." |
| 488 | * In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Roy goes on a quest to find star metal to reforge his grandfather's sword. He's extremely disappointed and feels the quest was a waste of time when he discovers the lump of star metal is about the size of a golfball. Subverted when he later learns that this amount of star metal is actually incredibly large, and more than enough to reforge the sword into a powerful weapon. |
| 489 | * Combined with ShootTheShaggyDog in [[https://mrlovenstein.com/comic/788 this]] ''Mr. Lovenstein'' strip, in which the SoleSurvivor of a doomed treasure-hunting expedition is determined to find the treasure in order to make his friends' sacrifice mean something... only to find that all the treasure chest contains is a note telling him that "the real treasure is friendship". |
| 490 | [[/folder]] |
| 491 | |
| 492 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 493 | * Mocked by the Internet meme "Maybe the real x was the friends we made along the way!". For example, when dealing with ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''' Lizardmen, replace "x" with "[[ImAHumanitarian rations]]". |
| 494 | [[/folder]] |
| 495 | |
| 496 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 497 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'': A DoubleSubversion in "Chained". The Black Hole Gang goes to a lot of trouble to let Macross escape prison and follow him to the planet Ozark, where he buried a cache of valuable starstones. The stones turn out to be legit and very valuable but corrode quickly into dust when exposed to air and sunlight. |
| 498 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' episode "Raise the Oozy Scab", Jimmy and company use Jimmy's newly-built deep sea exploration vehicle to find a pirate treasure. In the end, it turns out to just be a bunch of saltwater taffy. While his report gets an A+, Jimmy is still severely disappointed and he [[HeadDesk repeatedly bashes his head against the chest in frustration]]. |
| 499 | -->'''Cindy''': You know, Jimmy, I hear each one of these pieces of taffy is worth over three cents!\ |
| 500 | '''Jimmy''': I don't wanna talk about it... (''resumes hitting his head on the chest as the episode ends'') |
| 501 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'', Alvin hears that a house belonging to a famous gangster is about to be torn down, and he's convinced that they'll find the gangster's lost treasure inside his safe, so he drags his brothers there on another ZanyScheme. After what turns into something of a BottleEpisode, Simon and Theodore help Alvin get the safe out of the house before the house is destroyed... and discover that the safe contains the gangster's baby picture. It's a WholePlotReference to the infamous live special from 1986, ''The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults'', as mentioned in the Live-Action Television and Real Life folders. |
| 502 | * An episode of the '90s ''WesternAnimation/{{Babar}}'' TV series has much ado about an apparently valuable object of Retaxas' that goes missing. There are criminals and Arthur getting arrested and Zephir kidnapped. Then, at the end, the lovable sidekick criminal reveals that the object itself has no monetary value; Arthur, Zephir, and the criminal mastermind are not amused. Then it turns out to be Retaxas' beloved childhood music box, much to the rhino king's embarrassment. |
| 503 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' Grandpa Max sets out to find the Sword of Ekchuah in a Mayan temple. They fight off Enoch and his forces constantly throughout the episode and even a Mayan guardian alien-type thing. At the end, however, [[NoMacGuffinNoWinner the sword turns to dust as soon as Enoch touches it]]. It's then {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Max who jokes that "that's what happens when your weapon is 5,000 years old". Furthermore, in spite of the sword being guarded by a PhysicalGod, according to WordOfGod it never had any magic power to begin with and was just a normal sword. |
| 504 | * ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': In "Family Legacy", Cricket and Tilly search for treasure buried somewhere around the Green house to prevent it from being sold. All they find is a box full of seemingly useless mementos -- a watch from Gramma's father, aviator goggles from her aunt, and Gramma's own shovel. Just when Gramma is about to sell the farm, Cricket and Tilly figure out that the items in the box are actually a reminder of how the younger Greens always save the day when the adults have given up, making Gramma realize that the Green family treasure is the farm itself. |
| 505 | * This is the ultimate result of the quest for Shiver Me Timbear's pirate treasure chest in ''[[WesternAnimation/CareBearsWelcomeToCareALot Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot]]''. Grumpy Bear is ''not'' pleased at first. |
| 506 | * Part of the ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' episode "The Last Leprechaun" revolves around obtaining Darby Spree's magic pot of gold this way. |
| 507 | * The plot of the ''{{WesternAnimation/Clarence}}'' episode "Clarence Wendle and the Eye of the Coogan" revolves around Clarence, Jeff, Belson, [[ADayInTheLimelight Malessica, Nathan, and Amy]] coming across a treasure map leading to a treasure called "the Eye of the Coogan." Turns out the whole thing was orchestrated by Ms. Baker, who was trying to teach them a lesson about paying attention in class ("Coogan" is the brand of her glasses). Unfortunately, the kids get a little too into the treasure hunt and end up stealing the glass eye of a man named Terry ''Cogan''. |
| 508 | * In a fantasy-dream episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', Gosalyn hates studying for a history test and fantasizes about going on a quest for the magical Fountain of Knowledge with her favorite comic-book hero. After a long quest, many bad jokes, and a climactic confrontation with a BigBad, she discovers the Fountain is... a cardboard prop. As the villain said, "What? You thought you could drink from a fountain and get smarter?" It turns out that the stuff she learned in the quest was what she needed to learn for her history test. |
| 509 | * A ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' episode (the ''Magnificent Muttley'' segment specifically) had Muttley recovering a treasure chest, only for Dick Dastardly posing as a tax collector who confiscates it. Dastardly attempts to make some purchases with it, but when he opens the chest, he discovers it's full of nothing but dog biscuits. |
| 510 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' episode "Buried Treasure", it's revealed that the titular buried treasure that the cast has been fighting over is actually a small barrel full of bananas that Donkey Kong hid while playing pirates as a child. Bananas that have now spoiled with age. |
| 511 | * On ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'', Emmy, Max, and the dragon friends join Captain Scaliwag of the skies to find treasure, which turns out to be some pictures he drew as a little boy. |
| 512 | * ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' used this trope fairly often (not surprising considering the wealthy/avaricious nature of the main character). |
| 513 | ** In the Valentine's Day special, "[[Recap/DuckTalesADuckTalesValentine A DuckTales Valentine]]", Scrooge is furious to find that a chest in some sunken Grecian ruins purportedly containing "the greatest treasure" has nothing in it but a Greek word for "love" written on the bottom (for the record, it's ''philia'', as in dispassionate, platonic love). |
| 514 | ** In one episode Scrooge goes off to find the fountain of youth. When he does find it, the fountain doesn't really make ''him'' young - just his reflection. |
| 515 | * The reboot series, ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', would again use this trope periodically: |
| 516 | ** In the episode "Treasure of the Found Lamp!", the Ducks have to hunt for a lamp in a RaceAgainstTheClock that the swordsman who guarded it stated held immeasurable value, even though Scrooge had previously examined it and found nothing magical about it. At the end, it turns out the lamp had immeasurable ''sentimental'' value to the swordsman: it was a family heirloom that once contained the genie that was his distant ancestor. It also turns out that the reason they needed to hurry was that tomorrow was the swordsman's birthday and he would've been devastated if he didn't have the lamp back before then. |
| 517 | --->'''Ma Beagle''': What gives? Where's the magic? The genie? ''The wishes''?!\ |
| 518 | '''Djinn''': ''*starts laughing*'' Is that what you thought?! An ''actual'' living genie? Inside the lamp? You took that ''literally''?\ |
| 519 | ''*Ma Beagle nods sadly*''\ |
| 520 | '''Scrooge''': You said it'd be ''devastating'' in the wrong hands!\ |
| 521 | '''Djinn''': Yes, [[ExactWords devastating to me ''personally''.]] It's a precious family heirloom.\ |
| 522 | '''Huey''': And... Ifrit's Dawn?\ |
| 523 | '''Djinn''': It's my birthday and I can think of no finer gift. |
| 524 | ** In the episode "The Golden Armory Of Cornelius Coot!", the Ducks are searching for the eponymous armoury, only to discover that the "gold" is actually just stores of corn, and the weapons were farm tools. They conclude Coot wasn't the mighty warrior of legend who defeated an entire army singlehandedly, but actually just a farmer. However, an accident ignites the "armoury", causing all the corn to pop, making Webby realize Coot used his wits instead of his strength to defeat the invaders: the popping corn tricked them into thinking a defending army was backing Coot up. |
| 525 | ** Used for a brief gag in the beginning of "Timephoon!", when Scrooge asks for help bringing in some personal treasures that were stored in the garage. |
| 526 | --->'''Scrooge:''' We need to bring in all these valuable heirlooms before the storm hits!\ |
| 527 | '''[[{{Greed}} Louie]]:''' I'm sorry, "''valuable''"?\ |
| 528 | '''Scrooge:''' These are the famous canes of Clan [=McDuck=], going all the way back to our very earliest ancestors.\ |
| 529 | '''Louie:''' Ohhh... ''sentimental'' value... yuck! |
| 530 | ** In "Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!", Scrooge looks for the treasure of Isabella Finch, famous explorer and founder of the Junior Woodchucks. When they finally find it, it's her journals. While Louie is unimpressed ("The treasure is a ''book''? Boo!"), Scrooge realizes its true value, as it contains information on the Missing Mysteries which Finch was never able to solve, and which Scrooge now intends to find. |
| 531 | * ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': |
| 532 | ** In the episode "Dim-Lit Ed," Double D sets up a scavenger hunt for the other kids in an attempt to keep their brains active during summer vacation. The other kids immediately assume that the "grand prize" for the scavenger hunt is a jawbreaker; while the other kids actually try to solve riddles, Ed and Eddy resort to interrogating Double D, who refuses to answer. Turns out the prize wasn't a jawbreaker (and Double D never said it was); it was a diploma from the kids' school, which Double D considered more valuable. [[ItMakesSenseInContext Cue an annoyed Rolf pelting Double D with beets]]. |
| 533 | ** The episode "O-Ed Eleven" had the Eds finding a treasure map in Eddy's Brother's former room and plotting to retrieve the treasure from the [[AbhorrentAdmirer Kanker Sisters']] mobile home. In the end, all the map leads to is a suitcase full of wishbones. |
| 534 | * On ''WesternAnimation/EllaTheElephant'', the treasure of "Treasure Hunters" is a note about friendship being the greatest treasure of all, signed by the kids' parents. Belinda's ''really'' annoyed at first, but then they all agree that it's a great treasure. |
| 535 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has Peter discover that a placemat at a local restaurant, supposedly based on a real treasure map, actually does correspond to real clues, and ends up drawing the whole town into a mad hunt for the treasure, which eventually fizzles out. Peter and Lois eventually realize that the treasure is hidden at the Drunken Clam, the oldest pub in Quahog, and find a small chest hidden behind a photo... only for the "treasure" to turn out to be a promotional stunt by the restaurant from the opening, and on top of that, it was a coupon for a free meal that expired in 2006. |
| 536 | * The ''[[{{Literature/Franklin}} Franklin and Friends]]'' special ''Polar Explorer'' features Great Aunt Harriet's special treasure in the Antarctic, which turns out to be an extremely sparkly and picturesque lake that was discovered. |
| 537 | * ''WesternAnimation/FreeWilly'': An episode has Jesse and Willy scoop a long-fabled treasure chest before the BigBad (the Machine) does. In the end, the villain gets the chest, but upon opening it he only finds whistles, which are of no use to him. |
| 538 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': |
| 539 | ** Parodied when a space pirate's ship has been shot and is spinning out of control; before it blows up the captain is seen morosely looking out a port window and saying "Too late do I realize that me children are me only real treasures". |
| 540 | ** Also suggested by one of the monks trying to find God by looking through a telescope (in the same episode, oddly enough). "Maybe the love that this 'Fry' feels for his friend is God." "[[SarcasmMode Oh, how convenient!]] An explanation for God that doesn't involve looking through a giant telescope. Get back to work!" |
| 541 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GadgetBoyAndHeather'' has Spydra stealing the "most priceless treasure in the desert" that an emir planned to give to his son. It turned out to be a bottle of water, which would have been a valuable lesson for the boy. |
| 542 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' featured the hunt for Merlin's journals... which proved to be ordinary journals, not deep, dark mystic secrets. [=MacBeth=] is disappointed to find no powerful spells, but the Gargoyles -- particularly the ones that [[VerySpecialEpisode had just learned the advantages of learning to read]] -- understood their historical value. [=MacBeth=], of course, subverts his role as the villain: He understands their value too (and in fact, already has a copy), and lets the Gargoyles leave with them once he learns they don't have any spells. |
| 543 | * ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'', "Slightly Dinghy." Max wanted to get a quarter to buy a new video game, and after failing to find one in the couch, he talks PJ into asking Pete to take them fishing to find the treasure of the lake. The lake treasure turns out to be worth "less than nothing" in the words of a local reporter. Max is not harmed by this, because Goofy already found a quarter [[DramaticIrony (which the audience was already aware of)]]. PJ, who didn't want to come in the first place, however, had to faint. |
| 544 | * The ''[[WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch Help!...It's The Hair Bear Bunch]]'' episode "Gobs of Gabaloons" has the eponymous three bears palm off on zookeeper Peevly a supposed treasure map, which turns out to reveal the location of a horde of gold coins. Unfortunately for Peevly, the coins are Ptomainian Gabaloons, which due to a treaty between America and Ptomania cannot be spent in the USA and must be returned to Ptomania, unspent, but Peevly doesn't discover this before running up a huge debt against the treasure. He comes badly unstuck when the Ptomanian ambassador arrives expecting to collect it. |
| 545 | * In "Big Bug Island" on ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverLandPirates'', Captain Hook is thrilled at the idea of a golden caterpillar that will lead him to treasure and even agrees to an EnemyMine with the protagonists of the show to find it. The treasure turns out to be the joy of seeing the golden butterfly, which delights Jake, his team, and Hook's minions but aggravates Hook. |
| 546 | * Played straight in "The Treasure Hunt" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}''. Jem's "Starlight Girls" face off with Pizzazz's "Misfit" girls over a treasure at the end of a rich man's contest. The prize turns out to be books, much to Pizzazz's dismay. These were rare, leather-bound, first editions that any serious book collector would kill for - but the only serious collector in this universe was the rich man that held the contest. |
| 547 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/JuliusJr'' episode "Clancy, Be Careful", the gang helps Diamondbeard find treasure from a map he's found. It turns out that the treasure was all the stuff that belonged to him when he was a baby because the treasure was his ''mom's treasure''. |
| 548 | * Played in a unique way in the ''WesternAnimation/JungleCubs'' episode "Treasure Of The Middle Jungle". Young heroes find out about a treasure hidden deep within the jungle and all have different ideas as to what it would be. What they find in the end is an actual treasure: gold, gems, and crowns. While such riches would be appealing to humans, animals have no use for them, making young heroes disappointed and leaving. |
| 549 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' episode "The Treasure of Henrietta Twombly", a greedy treasure hunter hears a rumor that Mrs. Twombly's ancestor had buried treasure, then practically tears the pet shop apart trying to find it. When the treasure chest is finally found, it contains pet kibble, since Henrietta loved animals. Disappointed that there were no gold or jewels, the treasure hunter [[GaveUpTooSoon leaves]]. Blythe digs through the kibble and finds a book containing Henrietta's secret pet food recipes, thought to have been lost to history. Blythe and Mrs. Twombly realize they could probably make a pretty profit with it. |
| 550 | * The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "The Million Hare" subverts this big time. Daffy and Bugs are the chosen contestants on a show called "Beat Your Buddy," with a million bucks up for grabs. Daffy wins but discovers the host says the prize is "a million box," with one million little boxes inside. Daffy forfeits the prize to Bugs and is then told that inside each of the boxes was a $1 bill. Cue Daffy's face turning into a hee-hawing jackass. |
| 551 | %%* ''[[WesternAnimation/{{MASK}} M.A.S.K.]]'' plays this trope straight on rare occasion. |
| 552 | * “WesternAnimation/{{Mixels}}”, in “The Quest for the Long Lost Mixamajig”, King Nixel sets up a plan to capture all the Mixels by getting them all to join in a great treasure quest, so he can gather them all together. Eventually once all the Mixels have shown up to the threshold of the Mixamajig, where they all search inside for the Mixamajig. Eventually Snoof is one to claim the treasure, only for the Mixamajig to be a simple eggbeater. It even broke in an instant. Fortunatly, the Mixels found something better once King Nixel was driven off- a utopia to live in. |
| 553 | * ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'': |
| 554 | ** In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'' episode "The Magic Coins", after [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor their ill-thought out wishes]] made on the coins cause trouble, the ponies turn to the coins' crotchety creator, Niblick the troll, for help. Niblick refuses to help unless they bring him a treasure of equal or greater value than that of the coins. The ponies risk their necks to bring him three treasures, but Niblick rejects them all. Just as things look hopeless, Megan thinks to use the last of the coins to wish for [[ThePowerOfFriendship a friend for Niblick]], and despite the OddCouple dynamic between the two, they hit it off and Niblick agrees to help. |
| 555 | ** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyMakeYourMark'': In "Nightmare in Mane Street", Jazz Hooves and Rocky Riff compete against each other in the scavenger hunt, only to wonder where the Golden Pumpkin is after a while, unaware that it mysteriously teleported to Opaline's castle. They then realize that the real treasure might be the quality time they're spending together, [[SubvertedTrope only to laugh it off and continue searching.]] |
| 556 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', Rabbit sends everyone else on a SnipeHunt for a fake buried treasure, actually a chest he filled with rocks. Subverted at the end when they open it and actually ''like'' the rocks. |
| 557 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyAndScrappyDooShow'' episode "Wedding Bell Boos!", the lost Indian treasure hidden by Shaggy's pilgrim ancestor [=McBaggy=] Rogers turns out to be corn. It was indeed valuable for the pilgrims to survive - but not for their modern-day descendants. |
| 558 | * In one animated ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' special, "You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown", Charlie Brown ends up competing in a motocross race with the promise of Pro Bowl tickets as the grand prize. Charlie Brown, much to the surprise of everyone, ends up winning, but in true Peanuts fashion, they couldn't get the Pro Bowl tickets so they tried to compensate by giving him a gift certificate for five free haircuts. The problem? His dad is a barber, plus [[CharlieBrownBaldness he doesn't have that much hair to cut anyway.]] |
| 559 | * King Julien anticipates this trope on ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' after hearing about a treasure. "This is real treasure, right? Not one of those 'friendship is the greatest treasure of all' deals? Because you can't trade friendship for, you know, the goods and the services." |
| 560 | * Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "The Ballad of Badbeard", where Phineas, Ferb, and their friends try to find the treasure of Badbeard the pirate and eventually end up lost in a cave. Oh, and the actual treasure? Fake beards. |
| 561 | -->'''Baljeet:''' Perhaps the real treasure is true friendship, and the spirit of adventure.\ |
| 562 | ''({{beat}})''\ |
| 563 | '''Phineas:''' Nah, there it is over there. ''(points to a door with a big red "X" on it)'' X marks the spot! |
| 564 | * A late '40s ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' cartoon had the sailor and Bluto competing to raise a safe from a wrecked ship sunk below in the ocean. Popeye is the victor (of course), and when the safe is opened, Olive Oyl swoons with delight. The safe contained a photo of Frank Sinatra. |
| 565 | * WesternAnimation/PunkyBrewster is competing against Margaux Kramer in creating a float for a civic parade (episode "Growing Pain"), for which a prize is offered. Punky and Margaux wind up winning jointly, only the prize is a pepperoni pizza, which precipitated the cartoon's initial plot (Glomer's allergy to pepperoni causes him to grow when he sneezes). |
| 566 | * Seen on ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', when "the treasure of Third Street School" turns out to be a collection of beloved toys left behind by former students (one of whom happens to be the principal of their school). However, it's not ''quite'' as {{Anvilicious}} as it sounds on the surface -- the hiders of the treasure were, at the time, children themselves, who really ''would'' find such things precious, and really ''would'' be likely to play an elaborate game by "hiding" it as though it were treasure. (Who didn't do similar things as a child?) |
| 567 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheReplacements'' did a subversion of this, where escaping a trap required discovering the 'real' treasure, knowledge. The trick was, there actually ''were'' piles of gold and jewels waiting for whoever solved the puzzle, and the main characters happened to miss the reveal -- a one-off gag character came in time to grab it, though. |
| 568 | * Used in an ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' spoof in ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', in which "Pasadena Jones" (Buster) had gone through all the usual Indy adventures to get to a treasure chest purportedly containing "the Secret of Life", which turned out to contain Babs, Plucky and Hamton - the secret of life is friendship. He wasn't impressed: "In the sequel, I'm going after some gold." |
| 569 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': |
| 570 | ** The "Rue Britannia" story arc had Bullwinkle an heir to the Earl of Crankcase fortune, a million pound note, which is coveted by the Earl's evil nephews. Through a physical technicality, Bullwinkle is disqualified and the nephews are awarded the note. The catch: it's an I.O.U. note that the nephews are forced to work off. |
| 571 | ** ZigZaggingTrope in the "Treasure of Montie Zoom" arc. The treasure chest that Boris and Natasha spent most of the arc trying to open is revealed to contain an antique car. While Rocky initially expresses disappointment, he and Bullwinkle agree that ItBelongsInAMuseum. However, Natasha sees the car's license number is 14-K, leading Boris to conclude the car is made of solid gold. They eventually steal the car, but Boris's fence tells him it's not made of gold. When Rocky tries to get the car back from the two, Natasha discovers a large stash of gold coins in the back. Unfortunately for them, they have to shovel the gold out to get away, so this causes a chain of events which ends with the two going over a cliff while our heroes take the gold for themselves. |
| 572 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 573 | ** Spoofed in "Bart to the Future". Marge and Homer go out to hunt for Abraham Lincoln's Gold. They eventually find a chest and inside it is a sheet of paper saying "my gold is in the heart of every American". Marge thinks it's sweet. Homer angrily curses out "That lousy! Rail-splitting! Freak!". |
| 574 | ** Also subverted in another episode. Homer, as a vigilante leader, has caught a notorious cat burglar. The burglar reveals that he has a treasure hidden, and the entire town rushes off to solve his riddle and dig it up. When they find it, there is only a note inside, revealing that it was a ruse to distract everyone while the burglar escaped from prison. In true Springfield fashion, they refuse to believe the note and keep digging until the hole is too big to climb out. "Dig ''UP'' stupid!" |
| 575 | ** When Homer and Mr. Burns are in the cabin buried by an avalanche, Carl suggests that maybe "the cabin" they were supposed to find was that special place in their hearts that they go to when they work together. Lenny accepts it, but then gets disappointed because Burns said there would be sandwiches in the cabin. |
| 576 | ** At the start of "Homer's Phobia" Marge decides to sell her grandmother's antique Civil War statue in order to pay for a new dryer. However, when she gets to the store, the owner reveals that it's a liquor bottle from the 1970s; Marge sighs and says it'll be a monument to Grandma's secret drinking problem. |
| 577 | * One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' features the main characters being stuck in a cave together because they felt sorry for UsefulNotes/AlGore (ItMakesSenseInContext). Cartman finds what he thinks is treasure, and proceeds to ''eat it'' so he can move it out of the cave once they're rescued without having to tell the others. Unfortunately for Cartman, the treasure was fake gold as a part of a tourist exhibit, meaning he put himself through horrible pain for plastic that's only worth about 18 dollars. |
| 578 | * ''WesternAnimation/SquirrelBoy'' had an episode where Andy and Rodney learn of a treasure placed under their front yard by the company that makes Puffy Pirate Shirt Puffs. Turns out the "treasure" is a marketing gimmick; it's just a chest containing the company mascot and a lifetime supply of the cereal. To make matters worse, they had to tear up Andy's dad's prize lawn to get it. |
| 579 | --> '''Rodney''': Hey, what gives? Where's the treasure?\ |
| 580 | '''Cap'n Puffy''': I dunno, man. They just threw me in a box with a bunch of cereal. |
| 581 | * Played straight and averted in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Arrgh!", where they find the lost treasure chest of the Flying Dutchman. Averted for [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick, who each receive a gold coin from the Dutchman [[FridgeBrilliance for finding the treasure chest he lost]][[note]]''Two gold dublooons!''[[/note]]. The deceitful Mr. Krabs, however, gets it played straight: his reward is a plastic replica of the treasure chest.[[note]]''Plastiiiiic!''[[/note]] |
| 582 | ** In "Penny Foolish", Mr. Krabs sees Spongebob appear to pick up a penny, so he devises a number of schemes to get it from Spongebob, only for Spongebob to reveal that what Krabs thought was a penny was only a piece of gum Spongebob was collecting; subverted when the piece of paper turns out to be a $500 dollar bill. |
| 583 | * Creator/{{Filmation}}'s animated version of the novel ''Literature/{{Tarzan}} and the Forbidden City'', described above. |
| 584 | * ''WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa'': The episode "Guatemala Malarkey" has Timon and Pumbaa trekking through an ancient temple in search of the "Prized Jewel-Encrusted (And Very Worth A Lot Of Money) Glorious Golden Fruit Fly", which Timon hypes up as a priceless treasure. After an entire episode of Pumbaa saving an unwitting Timon from various traps and a giant mummy beetle trying to kill them both, it turns out that the Glorious Golden Fruit Fly, far from being prized or jewel-encrusted, is nothing more than [[FreePrizeAtTheBottom the free prize in a box of]] [[BlandnameProduct Jacker Cracks]]. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Pumbaa is, naturally, ''pissed'' at]] Timon for dragging him through all that danger for what turned out to be worthless tat and gave him a WhatTheHellHero speech. Timon realizes Pumbaa is right and lightens the mood in response by half-jokingly suggesting he's more scared of Pumbaa right now than any of the traps they faced. |
| 585 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', it's revealed that the [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction O.S.I.]] and the [[WeirdTradeUnion Guild of Calamitous Intent]] have spent generations fighting over a MacGuffin known as "the Orb", which they believe to be either a PerpetualMotionMachine or an ArtifactOfDoom. Phantom Limb manages to get his hands on it and attempts a coup, but it [[NoMacGuffinNoWinner falls apart in his hands]] and it was revealed that Brock's predecessor [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower destroyed it ages ago to protect the Ventures]]. |
| 586 | * ''WesternAnimation/VivaPinata'': The treasure chest that Fergy, Paulie, and Franklyn fought with Professor Pester and the Ruffians over? It turned out to be salt water needed for Taffy that poured out on the way to the factory as a result of [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Fergy and Paulie drilling holes in it]]. |
| 587 | * Gets a nod in the ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' episode "The Matchmaker" when Sylvia is trying to distract Wander with various brochures; he's GenreSavvy enough to spot the potential for this in one and shoot it down: |
| 588 | -->'''Sylvia:''' Search for lost antiquities?\ |
| 589 | '''Wander:''' We'll just end up [[TempleOfDoom in a temple, solving a bunch of riddles, dodging poison darts]] [[IndyEscape and getting chased by a giant boulder]], ''just'' to find out that the ''greatest'' treasure is our ''friendship,'' which we already knew. |
| 590 | [[/folder]] |
| 591 | |
| 592 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 593 | * Creator/GeraldoRivera will never be able to forget the live television special ''The Mystery of UsefulNotes/AlCapone's Vaults'', during which he hosted a heavily promoted two-hour special where he and a digging crew excavated Al Capone's vaults in an abandoned Chicago hotel. Before an audience of thirty million, Geraldo was forced to concede defeat as absolutely nothing of value had been uncovered in the vault's excavation, and the special never aired again. (You can see it on his website, however.) |
| 594 | * The infamous "NaziGold [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_gold_train train]]" in UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}. Long story short, there was none. |
| 595 | [[/folder]] |
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