Chest of El Cid
The chest of El Cid is the wooden coffer, bound with iron, that the exiled hero in the Cantar de Mio Cid fills with sand and pawns to the moneylenders Raquel and Vidas as a supposed hoard of gold, to raise the funds his banishment has denied him. The poem has El Cid swear the chest is full of pure gold, and the lenders accept it on his word, never daring to open it, and the ruse lets the hero mock the greed of the Jews while financing his campaign; the joke is that the treasure is worthless sand and the bargain is never meant to be redeemed. The episode, told with wry comedy, is one of the mos