The treasure is the speaker's uniqueness. The speaker of this poem uses the image of a thumbprint to demonstrate how unique she is, from her little fingerprint to her whole uniqueness. This image appears several times in the poem. Eve Merriam was an American author known for her children's books which include poems, stories, and essays. She published her first book at the age of eleven. Over the course of her career, she wrote more than twenty books, including Fingerprints: A Book about Identity. This poem is taken from that book. In the poem, the speaker imagines what would happen if someone stole her thumb and left its print in some mud. She thinks about all the ways her identity could be stolen, such as if her name were used without her permission, or if someone got access to her personal information (such as a credit card number). In order to preserve her identity, she decides to write a poem using the words "thumb," "finger," and "print." She starts by saying that her identity would be destroyed if someone else used her thumb to commit a crime. So, she writes a poem about a thief who steals her thumb. Then, she says that his identity will be destroyed if he tries to cash a check using her thumb.