When Nikola Tesla realized he couldn't afford his hotel bill, he decided to offer up one of his inventions as payment, and gave hotel management a sealed box that he claimed contained a "death beam." Tesla made them promise not to open the box because its detonation would be incredibly dangerous. After his death in 1943, scientists took the proper precautions to open the box, and found that Tesla had merely thrown a bunch of spare lab parts in the box to avoid paying his bill.
