Once upon a time, Juan, Grace, and Ashley were best friend living together on an island.
They always dreamt of escaping poverty, even though they were poor, they were happy since they had each others backs.
Grace saw a poster that was looking for people to find the treasure that was lost on a part of the island and return it to the owner in which they will reward them.
"Juan! Ashley! This poster claims we will get gold as a reward!
Grace explained the posters request of finding the treasure in which the owner will reward them, Juan found it dubious and Ashley was excited.
"You sure this is real?" Juan asked
"Yes! I asked around to see if its real, it was real!" Grace replied
Juan finally having his suspicions cleared, excitedly announced that they will be searching this lost treasure so that they may be rewarded with gold if they found it.
"We're going to need a shovel and a map."
Ashley quickly suggested that they need equipment and a map to quickly find the treasure, and to return it back.
And so, the group of friends traveled around the island looking for treasure, asking other people if they have any clue on where it was, to which they searched around to see any suspicious area that would be holding a treasure.
Juan, seeing a glowing yellow from a distance slowly walked towards the distant part of the parts of the beach—
"Juan! Where are you going?" Grace asked towards Juan who was walking towards an unknown part of the beach.
"I'm just going to check this part out, take a look at the other parts, they might be holding the treasure."
Juan lied to his friends who were clueless to Juan's discovery of the mysterious treasure that they have been searching for all day long.
Juan walked towards the area of glowing light, and lo and behold! He found the treasure which was buried beneath the sand with the open items of the treasure reflecting the sunlight onto the sandy beach, he slowly took out a small piece from the inside of the treasure chest, and it glowed with brilliant gold, he found it.
Thoughts raced through his mind as he tries to comprehend his findings, whether he should inform his friends about it then return it to the owner or… he keeps it to himself and slowly take away at its riches and live an easy life.
Juan decided to keep it to himself, not informing his friends and returning the treasure.
"Juan, did you find anything?" Grace called out to Juan.
"No, it was just crabs and seashells," Juan answered back.
Ashley and Grace asked Juan if he found anything, but he lied to them about his findings.
"We should go back home; it's going to be nighttime if we keep searching." Ashley worried that the night will hide the road towards home.
After days of searching, Ashley and Grace discovered the empty treasure chest while
Juan was away from the search.
While Juan was eating his expensive meal at home, his two best friends came home, and confronted him.
"Juan, why didn't tell us that you were keeping the treasure for yourself?" Grace asked.
"And why didn't you return it? You spent it all on yourself!" Ashley blurted out.
Grace and Ashley were angry to see that Juan had carelessly used every part of the treasure, leaving nothing behind not even for the people who helped him find it.
Juan looked down at his pricey clothes and the half-eaten meal on the table. His chest felt heavy.
"Wa-wait! I can explain.," Juan hurriedly tried to explain.
"Explain what Juan?! Your clothing and meals explain it all." Ashley angrily said to Juan
Without another word, Grace and Ashley turned around and left.
"H-hey! Don't go… I got enough for us! See?" Juan brought his hand up and nothing was there, confused he looked at his hand and was shocked.
"Wha-what happened to my treasure!" He shouted in confusion slowly but surely, he was starting to realize his mistake.
Days past, he waited and waited for them comeback, but they never did.
"I should have given the treasure back… should've told them that I found it…" Juan cried quietly as he lost his best friends due to his greed.
Juan was left alone, realizing that the real treasure he lost was not gold but his friends.