I thought it was more or less the maltese falcon, every one that touches it has something bad happen to them, While Sam Spade is investigating the murder of his partner, he finds himself surrounded by a host of strange characters all after one thing - a statue of a falcon reputed to contain priceless jewels. Warning - avoid the Ted Turner colorized version of this movie.
or there was the old simpson episode with the monkey paw, same premise
there are a lot of things that something so great causes so much harm