The treasure is bait for a Death Trap, so it's impossible to take it and stay alive afterwards (of course, sometimes the treasure is worthless even then, for the sake of a final "screw you" by the trap's maker). Often Double Subverted when whatever forces demolished his life go too far and perform an action that renders the treasure actually worthless. Then it turns out that the treasure had worth (just not one immediately apparent to anybody involved in getting it) and the character sees his life demolished in the ensuing Springtime for Hitler. The character assumes the treasure is worthless after getting it and tries to actively invoke this Trope and its positive values (even if it's a lie). The most common variant of this is Confederate money, which has its own section below, but it can also apply to vouchers for businesses that no longer exist anymore, metals that were precious at the time but are common today, and so on. The treasure may have held value at the time, but for one reason or another, it is obsolete by the time it is dug up. If the villain and the hero are competing for the same treasure, the villain will almost certainly fail to appreciate the value of the treasure, while the hero may in fact find something worthwhile in the treasure or at least understand its metaphorical value. The treasure turns out to be something that has only sentimental, intellectual, spiritual, or philosophical value to those that originally owned or crafted it. Or worse yet, time and/or the environment destroyed the treasure and all that is left is its scraps. 
Either the characters were misled and there never was a treasure to begin with, or the treasure used to be there but is long gone. The thing that the character thought would contain a treasure turns out empty.There are five main variants to this trope: Instead of gold, jewels, or something else that has practical or monetary value, it turns out to be something else entirely. A type of Plot Twist in which people spend a great deal of effort to find what they've been led to believe would be a very valuable treasure, only to find out that it isn't what they expected.
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