Worthless Treasure Twist

"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.

Red Mage: Yeah, I don't need a quest to teach me the importance of faking friendship."

- 8-Bit Theater #536, Savvy Customers

A Worthless Treasure Twist is a type of Plot Twist in which people spend a great deal of effort to find what they have been led to believe would be a very valuable treasure, only to find out that it is not what they expected. Instead of gold, jewels or something else that has practical or monetary value, it turns out to be something else entirely.

There are a two main variants to this trope:


 * 1) The thing that the character thought would contain a treasure turns out empty. Either the characters were mislead and there never was a treasure to begin with, or the treasure used to be there but is long gone.
 * 2) The treasure turns out to be something that has only sentimental, intellectual, spiritual or philosophical value to those that originally owned or created the treasure. 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.

If the treasure is mainly just the incentive for competition between the hero and the rival it's just your standard issue MacGuffin, though of course it could end with No MacGuffin, No Winner. Might involve All That Glitters, which is when an object appears to be valuable but is really worthless. If the characters find something valuable but discard it to ignorance, stupidity or possibly not being from Earth, it is a case of Worthless Yellow Rocks.

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, It's the Journey That Counts. See Magic Feather for cases where the heroes only think they need the treasure, but in fact they had its power all along.

Anime and Manga

 * In the Fruits Basket manga, Akito's prized box contains...
 * Ranma One Half:
 * There is a rather silly subversion in the story where he 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. When Genma finally gets the treasure and takes it to the pawnshop, it's only a single slip of paper. The slip of paper was a pawn ticket: one of their ancestors had already sold it. It didn't really matter, as it was apparently worth about twenty bucks.
 * Also 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. Mostly because the male, Prince Kirin, literally can't eat anything but pickles.
 * 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, for the aspirin and antacids for the hardships that a woman in the Saotome family must endure.
 * Played straight in the Lupin III film The Castleof Cagliostro: the big "Treasure of Cagliostro" that the Count was after turns out to be some 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." Presumably, the princess in this story will be able to parlay this find into a profitable tourist attraction.
 * A number of Lupin III movies and TV specials that followed, such as Operation: Return the Treasures, have had similar non-treasure "treasures" -- possibly largely as a Shout-Out to Cagliostro which continues to influence the franchise heavily. In The Stolen Lupin,
 * Subverted in the Lupin III OVA Secret Of Twilight Gemini, Lupin finally assembles the titular 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.
 * Detective Conan has played with this a few times. 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. Another episode had the treasure be the experience of the journey to find it... except there was also a real treasure, as some robbers had been hiding their gains in the same spot.
 * In the 11th Non-Serial Movie, Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure, the "pirate treasure" of Anne Bonny and Mary Read turns out to be
 * Subverted in Dirty Pair 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 comments that "this is the typical ending to a treasure hunt". However, the writing was actually instructions on how to use some Lost Technology 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.
 * The Area 88 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.
 * Hunter X Hunter: Near the end of the Greed Island arc, the group defeats Razor and goes up a tower to gain an ultra-rare card. Their NPC guide talks about how there was no treasure in a particular cave and that its beauty and holiness was the real treasure... which immediately becomes a card.
 * Doesn't...doesn't that completely defeat the point?!
 * The episode of Cardcaptor Sakura 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.
 * 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.
 * Subverted in Transformers Robots in Disguise: 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.
 * The Law of Ueki has a Double Subversion: The team finds a treasure box as part of a competition, and considering the theme of the show, its pretty clear what its going to be. But then they open it...
 * A little short story in the Ouran High School Host Club manga dealt with the host club trying to find the perfect soup that their principal had sampled when he was younger. Turns out.
 * In Ashita no Nadja we have George, Nadja and Kennosuke setting off to find a treasure that supposedly belonged to Joan of Arc
 * Subverted in Mahou Sensei Negima, after the 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 "Friend or Idol?" Decision, and they spend a few days studying the old fashioned way. They all pass, and learn a lesson about hard work or something.
 * Pulled twice in an episode of Mahoraba, when the residents of Narutakisou go on a treasure hunt. What they pulled out turns 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".
 * Frequently serves as the Aesop to many episodes of Guardian Fairy Michel--mostly due to the fact that the Black Hammer Gang seem completely unable to understand the metaphorical use of the word "treasure."
 * Double Subverted in Dragon Ball: 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.
 * In One Piece, 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.

Comic Books
"(While Robotnik is having a tantrum)
 * Discussed in the Don Rosa 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.
 * 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.
 * In Carl Barks' 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.
 * Subverted in the comic Knights of the Dinner Table (about table-top role players). The GM tried to play the "knowledge is the greatest treasure" scenario by having them discover an ancient library. One of the players exploits the pricing charts in the manual, selling every last piece of parchment to collectors and raking in a hundred times what they would have on any normal adventure, much to the GM's dismay.
 * 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.
 * One of the original Richie Rich 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.
 * Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog 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.

SWATbot: I suggest we stay out of his way for few days... Until he calms down...

Burrowbot: ...Or he'll destroy us all!

Caterkiller: Tsk! Tsk! All that trouble over a pair of Sonic's bronzed baby shoes!"


 * A Bamse story from 1998 evolves around the gang and two shore thieves looking for a treasure chest in a subterranean maze. They find the chest, open it, and inside is... a pancake recipe.
 * An obscure caricature comic had two archeologists spending fourty years in search of King Solomon's treasure. When they finally locate it, they find an inscription reading "The greatest tresure is to love and be loved". Cue Heroic BSOD and cardiac arrest.
 * In The Muppet Show Comic Book, 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.
 * In one Captain America story, the Red Skull is after 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 World War I career.
 * Hitman Annual #1 is about the pursuit of A MacGuffin Full of Money; 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.

Film
"Van Dough: What is all of this crap?
 * Lost Heirloom example: It Was His Sled. And in Citizen Kane, 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.
 * Felix the Cat: The Movie had this. The Duke of Zil is outraged to discover that the magical treasure he's spent the movie searching for is nothing more than a book with 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.
 * In the Casper the Friendly Ghost movie, Casper's father's treasure, which is sealed in an unbreakable vault, is only a baseball and glove with sentimental feelings (but no signatures) attached.
 * National Treasure does a similar subversion when the treasure turns out to be 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.
 * Before they discover the treasure it appears to be played straight. They 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 Heroic BSOD 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 Eureka Moment where Ben finds a hidden door that leads to the REAL treasure.
 * Similar to the comic, there was also the Richie Rich movie, where the Riches' vault was full of sentimental family objects/heirlooms, which the "villain" Lawrence Van Dough was frustrated to find:

Regina Rich: These are our treasured possessions!

Van Dough: But where's the gold... the diamonds... the negotiable bearer bonds? The money! [points his gun at them] Where is the money?

Richard Rich Sr.: In banks. Where else? And the stock market, real estate...

Van Dough: No! Is this some kind of joke? You're telling me there isn't one single platinum bar, or emerald, or $1,000 bill in this entire mountain?

Richard Rich Sr.: Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Lawrence, but that's not what we treasure.

Van Dough: [to Mook] Shoot them! Shoot them now, please! [Cue Richie showing up]"


 * Another fine example of Tropes Are Not Bad (and Pragmatic Adaptation while we're at it): the world's richest family wouldn't be the world's richest family for long if they kept all their assets in a vault hidden away somewhere.
 * Used straight in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - while there is plenty of gold (among other valuables) in El Dorado, the real treasure turns out to be.
 * Subverted at the end of Duplicity, when

""For something to be special, you just have to believe it to be special.""
 * A variation was used in Aladdin, where the dusty old lamp provided near-infinite possibilities. The various treasures were not only just the tip of what the lamp could do, but not touching them was enforced by the cave.
 * Inverted in Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1981). The protagonists think they're after a crashed WW 2 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.
 * A relatively recent movie used it straight, not once but twice: Kung Fu Panda  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.

"Jack: ... and you're completely obsessed with treasure.
 * Given a nod to in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Will: That's not true. I'm not completely obsessed with treasure.

Jack (presumably thinking about Elizabeth): Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate."

"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."
 * Escape to Athena (1979). The head of the Greek Resistance goes with some escaped POW's to loot a mountaintop monastery of gold plates worth $2 million.
 * In the Popeye movie, Popeye spends the duration of the movie searching for his father's hidden treasure; when it is found, it is revealed to be . . . keepsakes of Popeye's childhood, kept and treasured by his father.
 * Discussed in the 1982 version of Conan the Barbarian: A wealthy king hires Conan and his band to retrieve his daughter, who was brainwashed by Thulsa Doom, explains why he is willing to pay them any price they ask for the rescue of his daughter:

Literature

 * In Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, the of the Freemasons turned out to mean, whereupon most of the intrigue goes to the dogs.
 * One of the earlier 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...
 * 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
 * The novel The Hero From Otherwhere used this in an odd way. When the two boys who have become friends through 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.
 * The old The Three Investigators children's novels contained versions of this periodically. One that comes to mind lacked a clear moral: a sunken riverboat holding a watertight chest contained millions of dollars--in worthless Confederate money. It may have worthless when the book was written, anyway. But these days, preserved Confederate money is worth more than US currency of the same denomination, with mint-condition bills of $100 and $500 worth tens of thousands of dollars. The real irony, of course, is that Confederate money is so valuable now because most of it has been destroyed because it was considered worthless.
 * The novel 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.
 * "Carbon in its ordinary form is coal, crush it together and diamonds are born."
 * The 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.
 * In The Last Treasure, there was a family treasure (silver spoons made and signed by Paul Revere) at the end but the main characters found out that there was a greater treasure hidden: the first names of the original family's children spelled out SMITH TREASURE, signifying that the children of the original family and the descendants were 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 was 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 son was that he goes to fight without his blessing. An aunt explained that the patriarch probably buried the treasures as a way to tell his son that he loved him.
 * Played straight in The Boxcar Children 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 millioniare, 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."
 * The early Star Wars spinoff novel Han Solo and the Lost Legacy 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 James Thurber'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.
 * 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 Clear Their Name 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 George Washington's best spies ... and one of the letters was from Washington, detailing just how valuable this agent was.
 * Another Star Wars novel, Millennium Falcon, plays with this trope while also featuring an It's the Journey That Counts in the form of the titular starship's backstory. The treasure turns out to be, hidden by those who stole it largely for its symbolic value. By the time the treasure is discovered, however, the trope is subverted, since   Ultimately, this trope is double subverted when
 * Subverted in The Ghost in the Noonday Sun by Sid Fleischman: 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.

Live Action TV

 * Xena: Warrior Princess 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.
 * MacGyver: 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 pay through the nose to buy them.
 * Subverted in the Deep Space Nine episode "Who Mourns for Morn?" Quark gets his hands on Morn's treasure, only to find that it's nothing but bricks of worthless gold; all the valuable, unreplicatable latinum had been drained out. (Thanks to 24th Century replicator technology, gold lost a lot of its financial value; only its aesthetic appeal remained.) It's not, however, a total loss for Quark: for his help Morn gave him no small amount of latinum, and as he notes, some "backward" worlds still use it for money.
 * Played straight in the TNG episode "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 the Master Race that created all of them, hoping that it means they have united in peace... and nothing else. It does lead to a Not So Different moment (of a different sort) between Picard and the Romulan commander, but still...
 * This was an in-universe explanation for Trek's Rubber Forehead Aliens. Of course, they're all bipedal humanoids and have similar enough physiology to interbreed - they all come from the same source. One reviewer called the episode "more Roddenberry than Roddenberry," as the Great Bird was very fond of "Not So Different."
 * Subverted on Top Gear: 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.
 * 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.
 * On The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, 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."
 * Lost: Kate masterminding a bank robbery to get a toy plane out of a safety deposit box probably qualifies.
 * Played with in the Fraggle Rock 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 usual gang find the treasure, which turns out to be a musical 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?)
 * The Bionic Woman deconstructs this trope. A room supposedly containing a doomsday weapon holds 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, everyone assumes the threat is real, and 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.
 * In the Dutch children's series Bassie En Adriaan, one of the seasons has them go on holiday in Greece. While diving, Bassie finds a stone tablet with strange writing. When they call 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. Guess what these are?
 * In Japanese detective series Aibou, one of the detectives buy a supposedly haunted house. Turns out the "ghosts" are actually the daughters of the original house 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.

Music
"Now the valley cried with anger
 * Perhaps the earliest example of this occurred in the 60's era anti-war song "One Tin Soldier", where the inhabitants of a town slaughter the peaceful residents of a neighboring town in order to steal an unspecified "precious" treasure they own -- a treasure which turns out to be a slab of stone with the words "Peace On Earth" inscribed on it. You can't get much more Anvilicious than that.

"Mount your horses, draw your swords!"

And they killed the mountain people, so they won their just rewards

Now they stood beside the treasure, on the mountain dark and red

Turned the stone and looked beneath it...


 * beat*

"Peace on Earth" was all it said..."

Radio

 * Adventures in Odyssey: 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.

Religion and Mythology

 * Truth in Television: 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, comedians, chefs, and tanners.

Theater

 * Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: 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 because 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 because 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.

Video Games

 * In Final Fantasy XII, after obtaining Raithwall's first Esper, Ashe describes it as "A treasure whose value is beyond measure" (or words to that effect). Balthier, who always thinks in monetary terms says "Call me old fashioned, but I was hoping for treasure whose value we could measure."
 * Skies of Arcadia 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, The Power of Friendship (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.
 * The plot of Sonic Riders 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...
 * In Chapter 4 of Disgaea Hour of Darkness, Flonne offers Laharl a gift if he helps her find her stolen pendant. The reward turns out to be "the opportunity to realize [his] kindness". Laharl is not amused.
 * Early in Suikoden II, 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
 * A family treasure variation is a side quest in Arcanum.
 * 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 . Daisy was not amused....
 * Dawn of Magic, Russian So Bad It's Good action-RPG, has a hilarious one in the third act. One old man NPC tells you about island, full of treasure, and that he can transport you here for a fee. If you pay him, you will get transported to a small island
 * A quest in Fallout: New Vegas asks the player to collect bottlecaps 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. When and if the player gets fifty of them, they are directed to a back room full of At least you get a halfway decent weapon out of it.

Webcomics

 * Subverted in this Sluggy Freelance 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!"

Western Animation
"Baljeet: Perhaps the real treasure is true friendship, and the spirit of adventure.
 * DuckTales used this trope fairly often (not surprising considering the wealthy/avaricious nature of the main character).
 * In the Valentine's Day special, Scrooge is disappointed 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).
 * In one episode, after searching for the Golden Fleece, Scrooge and company realize that the reason it has remained lost for so long is that it smells too bad for anyone to want to spend any length of time around.
 * 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 representative of Scrooge's hard work.
 * This is itself played upon in one comic, "The Treasury of Croesus". Scrooge finds the treasure hoard of King Croesus, but is offered a deal by the local government - take everything in there and face an unprecedented legal headache as the government tries to overturn his permit, or settle for Croesus's greatest treasure. And his greatest treasure? The first coin he ever made (and they really do mean made). Later, they give the coin to Magica De Spell (who needs the first coin of the richest duck of all time to give her an amulet of unlimited wealth). When the amulet doesn't work, Scrooge is content with the fact that this means he is indeed richer than Croesus.
 * Subverted in another Uncle Scrooge comic book; when looking for an ancient Sumerian treasure, Scrooge and company find a room full of portraits of the ancient king's family. After they leave, it's revealed that there was a pile of gold behind one of the walls.
 * Subverted in "Tralla-La", where a primitive village that lacked the concept of money was introduced to (and corrupted by) it when villagers started lusting after the bottle caps from the health drinks Scrooge was drinking during a rest cure there.
 * Used in an Indiana Jones spoof in Tiny Toon Adventures, in which "Pasedena 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."
 * The Simpsons:
 * Spoofed in "Bart to the Future". Marge and Homer go out to hunt for 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 thinks it's a con.
 * Parodied in a Twenty Minutes Into the Future episode Homer -- the father of President Lisa Simpson -- digs up the White House lawn looking for Abraham Lincoln's "secret gold." Homer finds a Treasure Chest containing a note written by Lincoln that says that the true "gold" is the unity of America...and decides he just hasn't found the real gold yet.
 * Also subverted in another episode of The Simpsons. 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!"
 * When Homer and Mr. Burns are in the cabin buried by an avalanche, Lenny 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. Carl points out that Burns had promised there would be sandwiches there though...
 * Seen on 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?)
 * 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 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.
 * Played straight in "The Treasure Hunt" episode of of 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.
 * M.A.S.K. plays this trope straight on rare occasion.
 * An episode of the 90s 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;
 * An episode of The Replacements 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.
 * Filmation's animated version of the novel Tarzan and the Forbidden City, described above.
 * Part of the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "The Last Leprechaun" revolves around obtaining Darby Spree's magic pot of gold this way.
 * In a fantasy-dream episode of Darkwing Duck, 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 Big Bad, 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.
 * Parodied in the Phineas and Ferb 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.

(Beat)

Phineas: Nah, there it is over there. (points to a door with a big red "X" on it) X marks the spot!"


 * Futurama:
 * 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".
 * 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." "Oh, how convenient! An explanation for God that doesn't involve looking through a giant telescope. Get back to work!"
 * In the My Little Pony episode "The Magic Coins", after 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 a friend for Niblick, and despite the Odd Couple dynamic between the two, they hit it off and Niblick agrees to help.
 * Zig-zagged with Disney's Atlantis the Lost Empire. Most of the exploration crew going to Atlantis expect to find some fabulous treasure there . Milo, on the other hand, is completely looking forward to the knowledge he'll gain on such an ancient and advanced civilization.
 * In one episode of M.A.S.K., the villains are after a large cache of money hidden during the American Civil War. Unfortunately for them, it's in "worthless" Confederate money. No one in the story seems to consider that this might still be valuable to collectors.
 * An episode of Gadget Boy and Heather 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.
 * In Donkey Kong Country 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.
 * In the Scooby Doo, Where Are You! episode "A Night of Fright Is No Delight", the money Scooby inherits turns out to be worthless Confederate currency.

Real Life

 * Geraldo Rivera was going to find out what was in Al Capone'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.