Greed is one of human’s greatest flaws and is probably the root of countless of our modern problems. Presidents, dictators, thieves and every one of us has been greedy. The two men created by Herbert George Wells in the story “The Treasure in the Forest”, made exactly this experience, only that they immediately suffered from the consequences. I hope you can take something away from this moral story and enjoy learning about the author H.G. Wells!

Author
H.G. Wells or Herbert George Wells was born on September 21st 1866 in Bromley, England. At the age of eighteen Wells won a scholarship to study at the Normal School of Science in London from where he graduated in 1888. He worked as a science teacher and later suffered from health and financial issues. In 1891 Wells married his first wife Isabel Mary Wells and in 1895 his second, Amy Catherine Robbins. Wells published numerous novels over the next years with the first one being “The Time Machine” from 1895. His first work mostly consisted of fiction novels like “The Wonderful Visit” from 1895, “The Island of Doctor Moreau” from 1896 or “The Food of the Gods” from 1904. Later he changed his style to social or political issues and published novels like “Boon” from 1915 and “Mr Britling Sees It Through” from 1916. Herbert George Wells died on August 13th 1946 in London. Wells left a Legacy behind and is often seen as an important British writer of the early 20th century. He brought optimism into literature after the First World War like no other writer.

Short Summary
The story “The Treasure in the Forest” is about two men, Evans and Hooker, who hunt after a big treasure. A Chinese man had found a treasure of gold in a shipwreck, buried it somewhere else and created a map locating it. Said map, now got stolen by the two men and during the theft they killed the man, Chang-hi. Slowly, they made their way towards the gold when they stumbled upon the dead body of another Chinese man and started getting suspicious. They brushed it off and kept searching. Once they found the gold, they packed as much as they could in Evans’ jacket and went back to their canoe. After some time, Evan started feeling pain and later fainted. Hooker quickly looked for the gold ingots and felt a sting. He realized that Chang-hi had covered the gold in thorns which caused the thieves to die.

For the original story, click here! https://americanliterature.com/author/hg-wells/short-story/the-treasure-in-the-forest

The story of Evans and Hooker perfectly displays the karma that comes with greed. Not only did they want to steal the gold, they even killed a man in the process. The money, in this case in the form of gold, turns people against each other and nobody profits from it in the end. Before diving into the adventure and theft, the men did not prepare at all because their greed seems to overshadow everything.