Here's another example of stolen loot stories, that , in reality, might have no "stolen loot" to hunt for:
There's a late 1800's story in my area, of a Chinese fellow, in a china-town fishing village district, who had the only safe amongst this community of Chinese. So over time, all the other emigrants of this area began to entrust him with their money and valuables. He sort of became a defacto banker, simply because he had a safe.
Then supposedly the safe was stolen. And a long complicated story of lots of clues to its whereabouts (which makes for a fun treasure story).
But as I read the story, being a kill-joy and skeptical of all such stories, I ask myself "what alternatives could there be?". So try this one on for size: If that Chinaman had in fact squandered away the money (drug habit ? bad investments ? or just felt like stealing the other people's $$ ?), what would be the perfect cover story ? To simply say : "Someone stole it" and "he went that-a-way".
Again, don't get lost in the example, but just sayin'
