A Roman governor once made the acquaintance of the prophet Elijah. The meeting changed him. Elijah persuaded him to take the huge wealth he had amassed in office and, instead of squandering it on pleasure or monuments, to hide it in secret caches across the empire.
The governor, unusually willing to listen to a Jew, did as Elijah asked. He buried treasures of gold, silver, precious stones, and ritual implements in places only the prophet knew. The governor then went to his grave, and the locations were lost to the official records of Rome.
The prophet, however, keeps a ledger longer than Rome does. The tradition teaches that all the treasures Elijah caused to be hidden are still in place. They rest beneath ruins, under forgotten stones, inside the foundations of buildings that have been rebuilt many times since. When the Messiah comes, Elijah will reveal their locations. The wealth that a Roman hand collected off the backs of Israel will, in the end, serve the redemption of Israel. It will fund the rebuilt Temple. It will supply the banquets of the coming age. It will be put to uses its original owner never imagined (Gaster, Exempla No. 209).
The sages loved this story because it treats Roman wealth the way the tradition treats Egyptian gold. What was once taken will be returned. What was once misused will be redeemed. Elijah, who guards the thresholds of every age, keeps the keys.