Gold in the hills: Mysterious treasure hunt promises $10,000 reward

• It links to a website, where an anonymous group sets out the mission: find the 22-pound treasure chest allegedly filled with more than $10,000 worth of gold, currency and San Francisco artifacts.

State of play: The riddlers live in SF but want to stay anonymous (because "mischief and hijinx does live in a sort of legal gray area") and say everything you need to find the treasure is in the four-stanza riddle. But that's all they'll say.

• "A real honest-to-god treasure chest worth real money is buried, we don't want to give away its full contents, as the reveal of unearthing it and cracking it open is half the fun," they told Axios via email.

What they're saying: "We're a couple of friends with a passion for treasure hunting," the group said. "The Goonies, Indiana Jones, National Treasure… There's a romantic allure to treasure burying and treasure seeking."

• "We love adventure and this was a chance to have one ourselves and create one for others."

The intrigue: "Find a friend or friends to do this with — this is play and adventure," they added as a final word of advice. "And if you're using a jackhammer, you're doing it wrong."

My thought bubble: I, along with plenty of folks on Reddit, thought this was a marketing stunt, but the group says there's "no book [and] no product" to sell.

• I've already gone half mad with maps and red string trying to work this out.

Got an idea for where to look? Head over to our Axios SF Instagram and join the convo about theories!