Modern Treasure

Sitting at 1220 Montreal Road was a beautiful house within which, rumors told, the family hid a great treasure.  Secured by multiple security systems, each as difficult to bypass as the previous.  Security so tight that only a team of professionals could get through it safely.

Jane believed her team could pull it off.  She had watched the family for days on end as she moved in next doors, to 1218 Montreal Road.  She befriended the family, and managed to discover the ideal time to strike.  The 25th of June, the day they leave for a long vacation in the Caribbean for over 2 weeks.

On the morning of the 25th, Jane put a small bag filled with flyers on the porch of her victims.  The bag looked identical to the one she distributed to all of the neighbors.  Each neighbor, took the bag into their home.  Her victim threw the bag into their home not caring about it as they were too busy rushing out towards the airport to make their flight.  They wanted to focus on ensuring everything was in order - not a petty bag.

However that bag was no ordinary bag filled with papers and advertisements.  The catalog was hollow, and it contained this small robot in the shape of a fly.  The robot could fly, but fed upon the sun's rays.  Using short-range radio and a miniature camera to maintain communication and visual contact, Jane settled it in the sun on a windowsill, where it's batteries would stay full.

During the nights of absence of her victims, Jane would fly the robot through the house until she felt intimately familiar with it.  She found the entrance to the treasure - obviously blocked off - and obviously too difficult for her little robot to enter as the entrance was sealed off and the little robot couldn't produce enough pressure on the buttons on the control panel beside the entrance to push any button.

However, all of this was part of Jane's plans.  Upon the family's return, she had her fly keep an eye on the individuals.  She noticed the mother go to the entrance of the secret area where the treasure should be kept.  The mother entered a code - <1 2 3 1 0 1> - on the numeric keypad.  She gripped the entrance and slid it aside, the and fly followed her in.

Obstacle after obstacle the mother unlocked, and the fly followed her, and Jane noted each movement and each solution to the ever-more complicated security systems.  The details being irrelevant.

On the last door, the room filled with treasure, was actually quite empty.  It was a barren room, with white walls, white ceilings, and a carpeted floor.  In the middle of the cylindrical room was a small pedestal, upon which there was an urn.  Two lawn chairs faced the urn.  On the pedestal it was written "in memory of Jack".  The pedestal was made of glass, transparent and hiding nothing.  The urn was of clay, but not worth the effort of Jane to break into the house to get.

Shocked, Jane let her fly rest in peace at the foot of the pedestal.  Months of planning, massive sums spent, all to discover that the treasure wasn't there.  That it seemed to have moved.

The next day, Jane asked about the rumors of the treasure to her neighbors.  Openly, they replied: "In this mass-produced world - everything exists in infinite multitudes which drives down value.  The unique objects - the objects that identify us from the sea of duplicates - are what we believe to be of utmost value.  Hiding money would only attract thieves therefore we use the bank, expensive objects are mass produced - we can buy one again as we have the means.  Thoughts can be expressed and transferred into a digital form - duplicated and spread effortlessly.  People are unique."

Saddened and guilt-ridden - Jane moved away.  Her victims continued living, attracting the curiosity of thieves.  None managed to get the treasure, but who would want to go through the effort to get it?

This story is simply a few ideas mixed in together.  It's not really fleshed out - but it describes what I'm thinking about; namely how 'value' is being twisted and can be relevant to specific individuals, not everyone.