A treasure map of an ancient city leads you to Henders Farm, where Henders uses the ruined walls of the palace as his field boundary markers. Your map indicates that the entrance to the treasury is under his wheat field, and other interesting sites under his other fields.
Henders wants compensation for a year’s ruined crops before he will let you excavate. 500 gold for the wheat field? 100 gold for each other field you excavate, except 200 for the hay. He needs the hay to feed his animals over the winter. (These prices are double his expected return on his crops.)
The PCs should commit civil disobedience and burn the farm to the ground! Double expected return? Outrageous!!!
Don’t encourage them! The PCs are always burning stuff.
After they’re done, Henders spends 10 GP to hire village youths to put back the empty rusty chests and fill the holes. Next year he pays them 10 GP more to replant. And he gives his brother the scribe 10 GP to make a new copy of the “treasure map”.
Henders is a smart, smart man.
I like 1d30’s twist. Maybe, to further confound the PCs, the rusty chests shouldn’t be empty. They should contain notes, like “The White Idol must not be exposed to light” – and about a pound of white sand.