Richie could buy and sell entire worm farms, or send the servants into town to buy huge plastic sacks of wriggling fishbait, but he prefers to pretend he’s just like other kids. These events take place in the vast staging area for his childhood provided by his parents, where every element has been planned in advance to provide instruction, amusement, novelty and moral lessons, as well as protect the heir to the fortune.

There was no reason to bury money here, though; it’s likely Mr. Rich was walking along on a summer day, and, being obese, felt the need to lighten his load. So he emptied his pockets into a hole, kicked over some dirt, moved on and forgot about it.

As for Richie’s friend - well, we’ll get to him.