THE PIRATES AND THE LOST TREASURE

There was once an invisible ship aboard which some wicked pirates lived. These pirates spent their days sailing the seas and oceans hunting for very valuable treasure – some hidden treasure that no one had ever been able to find.  The pirates and their ship were invisible, and you could only see it if you were a pirate too. It also meant that the pirates could get to all the hidden treasure before anyone else, for they wouldn’t leave a trace.

As usual, the pirates set sail for some hidden treasure that no one had ever heard of, but even so this treasure was very special for it guarded a big secret…

Following the course of the treasure map, the pirates were impatient to get there as soon as possible, for they believed it would be the best treasure they had ever seen. In no time at all, the pirates’ invisible ship had reached the treasure island and as they were the first to get there they were very happy.

Just as the treasure map indicated, they had to head inland from the beach by taking one hundred paces in a straight line, turning right and taking eight more paces – and there, buried in the sand, was the hidden treasure.

The pirates grabbed their picks and spades and starting digging as fast as they could, taking it in turns when one got tired. But after they had been digging for quite a while, they hit something metal…

“We’ve found it!” cried a pirate.

They had found an old chest that had to contain the treasure! So they flung it open to see the hidden treasure no one had ever heard of (but which had a map about it). But to their horror, the chest was full of sand and had a piece of parchment inside it.

Extremely annoyed, one of the pirates picked up the scroll to see if it told them where the treasure really was. He began reading: ”If you have succeeded in getting this far, it is because you are not content with what you already have. You wish only to be richer and richer. Well, don’t bother looking any further, because there is no hidden treasure – the only thing that exists in the scroll on which I wrote these lines. I was once like you, a pirate who was only interested in becoming the richest pirate of all. But then I realised that material things such as money are not the be-all and end-all. I hope you learn to understand this as I did.”

These words made all the wicked pirates think hard, for someone who had also been a pirate had taught them a valuable lesson.

THE END

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