Week 11 Story: The Lost King's Treasure

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There was an old legend about a rich King who perished in the mountains. It was said that he was carrying pounds of gold and jewels with him. He was making a journey through the mountains when he crashed and was never heard from again. This story had never been proven true over the years. Many people searched the mountains for signs of the wreck hoping they would also find all of his gold. It was said that the King was known to reward those who helped others and that the gold would only appear to those who did in order to reward their good deeds. This legend was spoken all around town for many years but as time went on it was not mentioned as much. After hundreds of years, it was all but forgotten. 

An old man set off for the mountains one day in an effort to make it to his daughters birthday. She lived with her mother just on the other side of the mountains and he wished to surprise her. He had left him home early enough so he would have plenty of time to make it to his daughter. He packed up his supplies and food for the four-day journey and he left at dawn. The trip was going as planned and he was making great progress because he knew the path well. If nothing unexpected happened, he would be there right on time. 

On the third day, he took a break to rest by a river and eat his lunch. It was a sunny day and it seemed like the space around him was full of life. The birds were singing loudly in the trees and the gentle breeze created a beautiful sound of rustling leaves. The peaceful break was interrupted by a loud, piercing sound of someone screaming. The man quickly stood up and began frantically searching for the source of the scream. It did not take him long to see a man struggling to fight the current of the river and clearly losing. It was clear that he was not going to make it and was very close to drowning. The old man rushed to help without hesitation. He quickly grabbed the nearest fallen branch he could find and waded into the river. He stopped as he got closer to the drowning man, making sure he was still standing in a part of the river where the current was not as strong. The old man then held out the long branch and called out to the drowning man to grab it before he was swept away for good. The drowning man did not hesitate and latched on right as the current was carrying him by. 

The old man pulled the drowning man to the river bank as fast as he could. This was no easy task because of the strength of the river but he managed to do it. Once ashore, the old man asked the drowning man if he was okay. The drowning man happily thanked the old man for saving his life and asked how he could ever repay him. The old man said he did not need any compensation and just wished for the drowning man to make it home safely. The drowning man thanked him again and was soon on his way, after telling the old man that he wasn’t going to go near a river any time soon. 

The old man stayed near the river for some time after he left, thinking about what just happened and trying to relax his pounding heart. As he stood up to leave he noticed something shimmering near the edge of the river. As he got closer he quickly realized that it was five golden coins. He quickly grabbed them and inspected them. They looked to be quite old but they still shone brightly in the sun. The old man knew right away this would be a perfect gift for his daughter and he quickly placed them in his pocket and headed out again. 

The next day he arrived and was able to surprise his daughter for her birthday. He gifted her two of the coins and she was very pleased with them. The old man kept the other three coins and when he returned home. He took them to a bank to have them appraised. Word got around town quickly and it was not long until the people realized he must have found some of the lost king’s treasure. 

People set out into the mountains after that, all searching for a piece of the treasure but everyone came home empty-handed. The old man’s neighbor was the most drive to find the treasure. He asked the old man countless times how he came across the gold and where he was exactly but no matter how many times he went there, he could not find a single piece of gold. It did not take him long to realize that he must have been given the coins because he saved that man’s life. With this new information, the neighbor crafted a plan to get some gold of his own. 

First, he went into town and found a homeless man sitting near the market. He asked the man if he would like to make some money and help him find the King’s lost treasure. The man quickly agreed and together they walked off into the mountains. The homeless man had no idea how he was going to help but he was in need of the money so he agreed regardless. They reached the river where the old man had stopped and the neighbor told the homeless man this is where they would find the treasure. The homeless man was about to ask how when the neighbor shoved him into the rushing river. The homeless man began to drown and the neighbor quickly looked for a branch to pull him out just like the old man had. He figured that if he could recreate the scene of helping someone then the gold would appear to him as well. The neighbor headed into the river with his branch and attempted to pull the homeless man to safety. As he did this, he slipped on a mossy rock and got himself caught in the current. The homeless man was close enough now to pull himself to safety but when he finally made it the riverbank he turned around in time to see the neighbor float down the river and drown. 

The homeless man returned back to town and told the people what had happened. He warned them that if they attempted such a task in order to find the treasure they would share the same fate. The old man felt so bad that the homeless man was dragged into his neighbor’s plot for gold that he helped to homeless man purchase a home and live in comfortable happiness. The people of the town all learned an important lesson about greed that day. 

Original Story Source:  Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). 

Author's Note: This story was inspired by the Tibetan Folk Tale called, The Golden Squash. In the original story, a man helps save a bird and the bird rewarded him by giving him a seed to plant. From this seed grew a beautiful golden squash which made the man rich. His neighbor, so driven by envy, shot a bird and helped nurse it back to health as well. The bird gave him a seed to plant but when this one grew a man jumped out of it and killed the neighbor. This story serves as a good lesson on the dangers of greed. I really wanted to put my own spin on it while still remaining true to the overall theme and lesson that the original story provided.  That is why I still had the selfish neighbor in the story. While the other people in the town are searching for the treasure as well, it is the neighbor who takes his search to such extreme lengths. This was a very important detail to me because envy is often the strongest when it is directed toward someone we know or considered to be similar to us. It makes sense that the neighbor would be this driven because he might see himself as equal to the old man because they live next to each other. This story reminded me of a classic Dinsey movie where the bad guy plots for his own gain and everyone ends up learning through his wrongs in the end.