The Instruction of Amenemope is an Egyptian text dating from the 13-11th centuries B.C. This text was first made available for study in 1923 with the publication of manuscript B.M. 10474 in the British Museum. Chapter 7 of this work speaks of "slippery treasures," something one also finds in the Book of Mormon (Helaman 13:35; Mormon 1:18):
Chapter
7
Do
not set your heart upon seeking riches,
For
there is no one who can ignore Destiny and Fortune,
Do
not set your thoughts on superficial matters:
For
every man there is his appointed time.
Do
not exert yourself to seek out excess
And
your allotment will prosper for you;
If
riches come to you by thievery
They
will not spend the night with you;
As
soon as day breaks they will not be in your household;
Although
their places can be seen, they are not there.
When
the earth opens up its mouth, it levels him and swallows him up,
They
will plunge in the deep;
They
will make for themselves a great hole which suits them.
And
they will sink themselves in the underworld;
or
they will make themselves wings like geese,
And
fly up to the sly:
Do
not be please with yourself (because of) riches acquired through robbery,
Neither
be sorry about poverty.
As
an officer who commands one who goes in front of him,
His
company leaves him; (The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of
Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry, ed. William
Kelly Simpson [3d ed.; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003], 230)
