History Main / DeathByMaterialism

* This is basically the plot of the movie ''Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre''.

* Creator/MarkTwain relates in "The Innocents Abroad" on his trip to Pompei, "In one of these long Pompeiian halls the skeleton of a man was found with ten pieces of gold in one hand and a large key in the other. He had seized his money and started toward the door, but the fiery tempest caught him at the very threshold, and he sank down and died. One more minute of precious time would have saved him."

[[caption-width-right:330:Fraulein Schneider couldn't reach it after all.]]

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': In ''Ocarina of Time'' the House of Skulltula was a wealthy family cursed by their greed and turned into spiders, while in ''Twilight Princess'' Jovani was turned into gold after selling his soul for wealth. Good thing for them Link came along to put things right.

* [[Radio/TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny's]] famous "Your money or your life!" routine, quoted above, is a bit of a parody of this.

* In the Adam West ''Series/Batman1966'' series, the only people who died were bad women who fell to their deaths. In Catwoman's case, she died ([[FirstLawOfResurrection until she was used again]]) because she wouldn't let go of her bag of loot.
** Although anyone expecting Catwoman to stay dead hasn't paid attention to the name.

* In one segment of an episode of ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'', a mortuary employee assigned to burn the body of a man who had been killed by a rocket removes the deceased's gold teeth with greedy intentions. When he loads the body into the retort, the rocket is lit and sends the door flying [[OffWithHisHead straight through the poor blighter's neck]].

* * In the Sci-Fi Channel movie ''Film/{{Webs}}'', the BlackDudeDiesFirst because he stopped to grab a huge sack of cash from an abandoned armored car instead of running away from the horde of Spider-Vampire hybrids chasing him.

* * In the Sci-Fi Channel movie ''Film/{{Webs}}'', the BlackDudeDiesFirst because he stopped to grab a huge sack of cash from an abandoned armored car instead of running away from the horde of Spider-Vampire hybrids chasing him. WhatAnIdiot.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' dwarves are quite prone to this, whether it's looting socks off fallen comrades on a battlefield that's still raging, or [[DugTooDeep digging too much]] of [[{{Unobtanium}} that shiny cyan stuff]]. The infamous LetsPlay ''LetsPlay/{{Boatmurdered}}'' has dwarves rushing under the Elephants' feet to loot their trampled comrades.

* In the short Franchise/Hellboy story "Sullivan's Reward", an alcoholic named Sullivan inherits a house, and discovers that every time he lures someone (usually a vagrant) into a certain room, that person dies and a couple of gold coins are dropped down the stairs. He expects an even bigger reward for luring Hellboy into the room, and gets it – in the form of a solid mass of coins the size of a small car that crashes down the stairs and squashes him into bloody pulp.

* In the short ComicBook/Hellboy story "Sullivan's Reward", an alcoholic named Sullivan inherits a house, and discovers that every time he lures someone (usually a vagrant) into a certain room, that person dies and a couple of gold coins are dropped down the stairs. He expects an even bigger reward for luring Hellboy into the room, and gets it – in the form of a solid mass of coins the size of a small car that crashes down the stairs and squashes him into bloody pulp.

* This was also the fate of many of UsefulNotes/HernanCortes's men when they fled the Aztec capital. Set in the middle of a lake, the city was only reachable by man-made causeways. As they fled across these, in their panic many fell into the water. The weight of the gold they had stuffed their clothes with caused many to drown.

* ''Literature/GhostInTheNoondaySun:'' When the pirate ship sinks, most of the sailors pile all of the treasure into a lifeboat. The lifeboat capsizes from the weight, and only one of its passengers stays afloat long enough to be picked up by the three characters who chose not to load their lifeboat with treasure.

* The otherwise horrid film of ''Film/DocSavage'' ends with TheDragon, in the middle of a hidden valley where a lake of molten gold is erupting, dancing in glee, and trying to catch the superheated metal in his pockets. Amazingly, he does not die from this or even get burned as liquid gold splatters across him. However, when the hero and his allies leave the cave they took shelter in, they find him nothing but a statue, completely encased in gold.

* The third culprit of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', [[spoiler: Celestia Ludenberg,]] enacted her murder plot and killed both [[spoiler: Kiyotaka Ishimaru]] and [[spoiler: Hifumi Yamada]] because Monokuma offered ten million dollars to whoever could successfully kill another student and not get caught. Once [[spoiler: she's]] finally exposed as the killer, [[spoiler: she]] explains that [[spoiler: the only reason she's spent her life gambling for vast sums is to afford to live out her dream of owning a European castle and be surrounded with male servants dressed as vampires. She wants it so badly that she's literally [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame bet her own life.]] When she saw Monokuma offer so much money and realized that all she had to do was take a few lives, it was a no-brainer for her. Before she's led off to her execution, she decides to go down as a GracefulLoser with no regrets for doing whatever she had to to get what she wanted.]]

* The third culprit of ''VideoGame/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', [[spoiler: Celestia Ludenberg,]] enacted her murder plot and killed both [[spoiler: Kiyotaka Ishimaru]] and [[spoiler: Hifumi Yamada]] because Monokuma offered ten million dollars to whoever could successfully kill another student and not get caught. Once [[spoiler: she's]] finally exposed as the killer, [[spoiler: she]] explains that [[spoiler: the only reason she's spent her life gambling for vast sums is to afford to live out her dream of owning a European castle and be surrounded with male servants dressed as vampires. She wants it so badly that she's literally [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame bet her own life.]] When she saw Monokuma offer so much money and realized that all she had to do was take a few lives, it was a no-brainer for her. Before she's led off to her execution, she decides to go down as a GracefulLoser with no regrets for doing whatever she had to to get what she wanted.]]

* The third culprit of ''VideoGame/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', [[spoiler: Celestia Ludenberg,]] enacted her murder plot and killed both [[spoiler: Kiyotaka Ishimaru]] and [[spoiler: Hifumi Yamada]] because Monokuma offered ten million dollars to whoever could successfully kill another student and not get caught. Once [[spoiler: she's]] finally exposed as the killer, [[spoiler: she]] explains that [[spoiler: the only reason she's spent her life gambling for vast sums is to afford to live out her dream of owning a European castle and be surrounded with male servants dressed as vampires. She wants it so badly that she's literally [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame bet her own life.]] When she saw Monokuma offer so much money and realized that all she had to do was take a few lives, it was a no-brainer for her. She decides to go down as a GracefulLoser with no regrets for what she did to get what she wanted.]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* This has happened to Lifty and Shifty the thieving raccoon twins in ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' on more than one occasion. One good example of this is in the episode "[[Recap/HTFSeaWhatIFound Sea What I Found]]". After Lifty gets pinned under an iron pillar, Shifty chooses to save the jewelry Lifty is carrying rather than Lifty himself. The weight of all the gold he's carrying slows him down enough for the underwater volcano they're over to start melting it, causing it to cover him and burn him to death. Lifty manages to escape with only minor injuries, only to notice his now golden brother and, overcome with greed himself, try to grab him. The statue is too heavy for him, his hand gets stuck, and he gets pulled to the bottom and drowns.

* The third culprit of ''VideoGame/DanganRonpa'', [[spoiler: Celestia Ludenberg,]] enacted her murder plot and killed both [[spoiler: Kiyotaka Ishimaru]] and [[spoiler: Hifumi Yamada]] because Monokuma offered ten million dollars to whoever could successfully kill another student and not get caught. Once [[spoiler: she's]] finally exposed as the killer, [[spoiler: she]] explains that [[spoiler: the only reason she's spent her life gambling for vast sums is to afford to live out her dream of owning a European castle and be surrounded with male servants dressed as vampires. She wants it so badly that she's literally [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame bet her own life.]] When she saw Monokuma offer so much money and realized that all she had to do was take a few lives, it was a no-brainer for her. She decides to go down as a GracefulLoser with no regrets for what she did to get what she wanted.]]