 As the two previous Bassie & Adriaan adventures,  _"Bassie en Adriaan en het geheim van de schatkaart" (1986)_ (qv)  and _"Bassie en Adriaan en de verdwenen kroon" (1988)_ (qv) were  actually based on earlier radio plays, this one had the first  original story since  _"Bassie en Adriaan en de huilende professor" (1982)_ (qv). In a  nice twist, the story of this series was later used as the basis for  a third radio play, to complete the trilogy, more or less.