One a quiet night in Ipatinga, a medium sized municipality in Brazil, an old man had a revelation. He dreamed that a mountain of gold was located under his kitchen. Now, most of us would interpret this as merely a trick of the mind. After all, who wouldn’t want to find a treasure right where they live? Unfortunately for him, instead of laughing it off, he took this to be a sign from God. For months, he began to dig a massive hold under his kitchen floor.

The hole had reached a depth of 40 meters before tragedy struck. While he was removing water and mud from his massive excavation, the old man slipped, falling to his death. The fire department retrieved his body, and from the condition of the corpse, it was obvious that he had suffered a great deal before expiring.

Is there a lesson to learn from this? Well, let’s start with the fact that there is a finite amount of gold that can be mined. Some estimates suggest that we might “run out” of minable gold by 2050. Let’s also keep in mind that dreams are no substitute for mineral surveys. Lastly, even if there were a God, I highly doubt that this entity gives a flying crap about that shinny metal we’re all obsessed with.