In a small village on the outskirts of the city, Mr. Tu, old, hunched over, with dim eyes, lives alone in an old house with his youngest son, Minh, and his family. Minh, 40 years old, is a small trader, but his hard life makes him increasingly irritable. Mr. Tu used to be a simple farmer, now old and weak, he only knows how to sit in a corner of the house, telling old stories, which annoys Minh. “Dad is old, living here is a waste of food, go out and live!” – Minh shouted, chasing his father out of the house on a rainy afternoon.
Mr. Tu quietly carried an old bag containing a few clothes and some change, wandering out into the street. He did not cry, just sadly looked back at the beloved house, which he had sweated to build since his youth. The neighbors whispered: “Poor Mr. Tu, such unfilial children!” But Minh ignored it, he thought his old father was just a burden, not of any value. Minh’s wife even urged: “You were right to chase him away, now our house is more spacious, we can sell the land to make money.”
Mr. Tu wandered around for a few days, then an acquaintance took him to a nursing home in the suburbs. There, he lived alone, sitting by the window every day, looking at the sky and clouds, remembering the past. He did not blame his son, but wondered why people’s hearts changed so quickly. Minh was happy, he decided to renovate the house, digging the foundation to build another floor. “Now that there is no decrepit old man, I can do big business!” Minh thought to himself.
A month passed. That morning, when the workers were digging deep under the old house, they suddenly came across a secret tunnel. Minh ran out to see, his eyes wide open: Inside were countless wooden boxes containing gold bars, silver ingots, and rare antiques, estimated to be worth up to 125 billion VND! Minh fell backwards, his hands trembling as he touched the sparkling gold bars. “Oh my god, dad… are you hiding this treasure?” He remembered the times when Mr. Tu secretly dug in the backyard, thinking he was senile, but it turned out he had buried a huge fortune. The neighbors gossiped, Minh became the center of attention, but now he was filled with regret. “I chased dad away, where is he now? I have to find him to share!”
Minh hurriedly hired a detective and ran around looking for Mr. Tu. Finally, he went to the nursing home and knelt before his father: “Dad, I was wrong! I found a treasure under the house, 125 billion, all of it is yours! I’m sorry, come home with me!” Mr. Tu looked at his son, his eyes sparkling, but he did not smile. He slowly said: “Son, that treasure is not mine. It is an ancestral legacy, I am just the custodian. I know you are greedy, so I tested you. I buried it to see if you regret it.”
Minh was overjoyed, thinking his father had forgiven him. Mr. Tu took out an old piece of paper from his pocket – a legal will. “That treasure, my father made a will to leave to… this village, to build schools and hospitals for poor children. You chased me away, I signed everything. Now you dig it up, but legally it belongs to the charity fund. You only get a small part, enough to live on. I’m not rich, but I taught you a lesson: Money can’t buy love.” Minh was stunned and collapsed. It turned out that Mr. Tu had predicted everything, using the treasure as a “trap” to teach his son a valuable lesson. From that day on, Minh changed, taking good care of his father, but his heart was still tormented because he almost lost everything because of greed.