History Main / WorthlessTreasureTwist

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' 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.

* 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]].

* The 60s-era anti-war song "One Tin Soldier", where the inhabitants of a valley slaughter the peaceful residents of a neighboring mountain in order to steal an [[PoorCommunicationKills unspecified]] "precious" treasure they own. When the mountain people offer to share the riches, the greedy valley residents turn angry, wanting nothing less than ''all'' the mountain people's treasure, and the valley folk slaughter the mountain people to seize their treasure... which turns out to be a slab of stone with the words "[[{{Irony}} Peace On Earth]]" inscribed on it.

* Zig-zagged with Disney's ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire''. Most of the exploration crew going to Atlantis expect to find some fabulous treasure there and are willing to kill the remaining people in Atlantis to get it. Milo, on the other hand, is completely looking forward to the knowledge he'll gain on such an ancient and advanced civilization. Both happen. The crew learns the value of the culture of Atlantis, but in saving the people they unearth a honking big treasure, which they are given as a reward.

* In the ''Film/{{Casper}}'' movie, 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]].

* In the ''Film/StreetFighter'' film, as Bison starts losing, Dee Jay decides it is time to say ScrewThisImOutOfHere 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.

* DoubleSubverted 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.

** The "Treasure of Montie Zoom" arc ZigZags this trope. 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.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', 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]].

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' 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.

** Another Red Jacket episode has Lupin and the gang locate a secret stash belonging to Hitler. The stash contains his academic records, which showed off his bad academic record (a true historical fact). Lupin can't believe that a guy who murdered half the world had to hide away something like this.

* ''Anime/LupinIII'':

** 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.

* 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.

* “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.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' provides us an example of the "treasure is worthless because it's actually a DeathTrap" twist in the "Kitchen Irish" arc: after withstanding his endless insulting and abuse (in more ways than one), the family of Irish Mob kingpin "Pops" Nesbitt finally obtained information in how to get his inheritance from his SpitefulWill (even deciding, once they all get just one small clue each, to not do what Nesbitt seemingly wanted them to do (namely kill each other) and go get the money as a group)... and then it turns out that his "inheritance" was a safety deposit box with a C-4 BoobyTrap.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'': The "Kitchen irish" arc has infamous 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 suitcase with a note that reads "Cunts"... and a ton of explosive that kills them all.

** In one 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.

* * 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". [[spoiler: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''.]]

** ''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. Another example that is not as bad as some others -- what people consider valuable depends greatly on their circumstances.

* In Creator/JamesThurber's ''The Wonderful O'', the island's treasure turns out to be the word "freedom". At least in this case, the islanders did their best to make it clear from the outset that there were no real jewels.

** “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.

* ''WesternAnimation/VivaPinata'': [[spoiler: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]]]].

* ''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. [[spoiler: 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.

** 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. [[spoiler:Weevil got the message and indeed tries to defend his hometown from the Marines.]]
** 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, [[spoiler: 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.]]

* DoubleSubverted in ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'': the title characters are hired for a raid on a ship that they think contains ridiculous amounts of highly valuable cocaine — [[spoiler: except there isn't any]]. It turns out the actual treasure on the ship is [[spoiler: 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 [[spoiler: Soze (in his current alias as Verbal Kint]] leaves the station before they can hold [[spoiler: him]] on any further suspicion on [[spoiler: his]] involvement of the events of the film and it's implied that that's the last those officers see of [[spoiler: him]].

* ''VideoGame/BrownDustII'': [[spoiler: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]].

* ''VideoGame/UnchartedGoldenAbyss'' has the treasure at the end of the game. While it ''is'' valuable, the problem is that [[spoiler: it's highly radioactive, meaning anyone who spends time near it will be poisoned]].

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'': The Ankaran Sarcophagus is generally pursued by various vampires, who believe it to to contain an elder vampire. [[spoiler: 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.]]

* ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'': 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.

* 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 throwing away a fortune in ''peppercorns''.

* ''VideoGame/BlueArchive'': [[spoiler:[=V2C1=] centers on Millennium's Game Development Club and their quest to find the G.Bible, said to contain the secret to developing the perfect game. When they do finally get it near the end of the story, it's a single message - the secret to developing the perfect game is love.]] They are understandably pissed.

* ''VideoGame/BlueArchive'': V2C1 centers on Millennium's Game Development Club and their quest to find the G.Bible, said to contain the secret to developing the perfect game. When they do finally get it near the end of the story, it's a single message - the secret to developing the perfect game is love. They are understandably pissed.