Buried treasure originates and ends in misfortune. The standard tale starts with calamity: Privateers ransack a merchant ship, then wreck themselves on jagged shoals. A survivor buries the plunder before returning to civilization, but hard living prevents its recovery. Deathbed revelations to a trusted friend offer cryptic instructions—a hint hoarsely whispered, a crudely scrawled cipher, a map sketched on parchment. The eager recipient exhausts finances and sanity seeking untold wealth, then passes the dream on. At last, a dogged scavenger hunts down and digs up the treasure.

The thrill of the quest is undeniable. Struggle and tragedy fade in the light of gold, of wealth beyond imagining… Well, enough to cover the costs, and maybe the legal fees. The ancient principle of “finders...