X Marks The Jewels

If you could wander the halls here at Catholic Answers, you’d be amazed at the tidbits you hear around the proverbial water cooler. Just the other day, a colleague told me about a real-life on-going treasure hunt. It sounded like just the thing for a blog post.

According to my colleague’s story, a retired businessman who loves treasure hunts decided to take one million dollars of his own money and create a nationwide treasure hunt. The money was converted into jewels created in the shape of various creatures, the most valuable of which is a spider valued at nearly a half-million dollars. He then had tokens made and hid the tokens throughout the country. He wrote a fairy tale with clues to the locations of the tokens and had the book published. Treasure hunters who follow the clues and find a token can redeem it for the jewel to which it corresponds. A number of families and even classrooms around the country have joined the hunt. Several tokens have been found and their jewels claimed, but a number are still out there … including the spider jewel.

THE TREASURE HUNT.

READ MORE HERE.

What struck me was how wonderful an idea it was for this gentleman to disperse his million dollars this way. Some may complain that he should have given it to charity, but as worthy as charities are and as much as they should be remembered by those with largesse to share, charities are not the only means by which people can be generous with each other. Sometimes it can be a good deed simply to give others pleasure … not to mention the thrill of discovery and the opportunity to spend time with friends and loved ones in the pursuit of a dream.