One man's trash is another man's treasure, so it can sometimes be tough to discern precious valuables from worthless refuse. Here's a guide to telling the difference:

You Find: An old banana peel teeming with mayflies
Trash or Treasure? Treasure. Not only can you use the banana peel as the centerpiece of a classic "trip and fall" comedy routine, but the mayflies' short lifespan and dearth of chromosomes make them ideal for studying genetics.

You Find: A wad of soggy $100 bills
Trash or Treasure? Trash. Most stores, banks, and decent people won't accept wet money. Plus, $100 bills are quite common and thus worth less than rare denominations like the $2 bill or the batch of tens where Alexander Hamilton sticks his tongue out, revealing it to be a small snake with a mind all its own.

You Find: A dusty map leading from icy caverns to hidden jungles marked with a big, red X.
Trash or Treasure? Trash. If a really rich person left behind a treasure map, they would have written it on an iPad.