Six days John Solomon III passed away, his family caravan consisting of 4 children 9 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren left the comfort of New York to come to the small town of Reed. The town had a cozy population of 50, all of whom gathered around old Solomon’s farm.
The city-dwellers wrinkled their nose as they breathed in the fresh air, untouched by the pollution of polluted minds.
All fifteen concrete junglers had braved the wild because of that one eternal thing - money. None of them remembered John Solomon III, they would probably have passed over his obituary without batting an eyelid if it hadn't been for a swanky New York Lawyer from a five-name law firm who contacted each and every one of them to tell them the contents of John's will.
It seemed like the "poor" little country farmer had amassed a fortune. The will stated that John Solomon had treasure hidden somewhere in his 10 acres of land, whoever found it first was entitled to the entire fortune. John had given them a riddle:
Hidden in mother earth's belly,
in a straight line somewhere,
you strip away the creepers,
find a golden glow for keepers.
Thus, the baby boomers had showed up with shovels, the Gen X had rented tractors and the millennials had made DIY gadgets to scan the area.
They were greeted at the front gate by Victor Krump, the young farmhand John had treated like a grandson. He looked at the entourage and closed his eyes, he had never begrudged being left out of the so-called fortune, because John had left him the farm but seeing the procession of John's family, none of whom were wearing black, he balled his fists. The crowd around the fences shook their head at the old man’s folly. Why hadn’t he left the fortune to Victor?
Their fury soon turned to amusement as they watched the New Yorkers working in the hot sun, sweating, and panting throughout the day. None of the gadgets had worked and their interpretation led them to go systematically in lines and pull out any weeds to look for the treasure beneath them.
They had dug through the entire ten acres among themselves but were left high and dry by the end of the day. This continued for a week as Victor watched them work the land he now owned.
On the eighth day the entourage left, and Victor looked at the fallowed land and laughed out aloud.
He got out the bags of wheat seeds to sow and reap John Solomon's golden treasure.