Twentysomething couple Eddie and Angel recently moved to Phoenix, Arizona. They decided to save money and buy themselves an old doer-upper. The place was in a bit of a state when they moved in, but hey – that’s the price you pay. They didn’t mind, though. They were up for the challenge.

But it was just a few days into their project that Angel stumbled across a hidden safe under the floor. The safe was locked but she had the code (having found it the previous day in an old medicine cabinet) and so, naturally, she dived right in. And her and Eddie were shocked at what they found…

Cash! Cash and booze! But not only that, a secret cache of papers…

They took it all out and counted up the money – it totalled more than $50,000!

And a bottle of James E Pepper bourbon. After a little Googling, they discovered that Pepper was the inventor of the classic whisky cocktail, The Old Fashioned. And that the bottle they’d inherited was about as rare as they come!

But it was the book and papers inside which really fascinated the young couple. The book was called A Guide for the Perplexed by E.F. Schumacher and appeared to contain a series of clues to something.

On the back of the photograph found at the front of the book read the message:

‘Alan,

I have a book you must read. I’ve underlined a few key passages.

Your friend,

Vincent’

Later on there was a small map of the area with a little mark indicating the nearby town of Mesa, AZ.

On the page with the map in there was a passage with some text underlined. The chapter was called ‘On Philosophical Maps’ and the passage read:

“One way of looking at the world as a whole is by means of a map, that is to say, some sort of plan or outline that shows where various things are to be found.”

Next, there was another photograph, appearing to show an old estate or something. Underlined this time? – this was written:

“There yielded such fruitful results.”

The back of the photo said this:

And finally there was a bingo card with some numbers ringed. Was this a code to yet another safe???

What a mystery! Maybe someone will follow it up… We’d love to hear about it.