One Piece Chapter 22, page 24-26: YOU ARE A RARE AND PRECIOUS ANIMAL TOO

Nami continues to yell at Luffy to drop the chests, but Luffy stubbornly refuses. Gaimon, looking up with tears in his eyes, tells Nami to let it go. He realizes that Luffy is a good person who is trying to spare his feelings. Gaimon admits that deep down, he always suspected the truth but tried hard not to think about it.

Gaimon breaks down in tears, asking if the chests are empty. Nami gasps in realization. At the top of the hill, Luffy sits quietly next to the five wide-open, completely empty treasure chests. Gaimon weeps, realizing that the treasure had already been taken by someone else before his crew ever found the map.

Nami is devastated for Gaimon, pointing out the tragedy of him guarding empty chests for twenty years. Suddenly, Luffy bursts into loud, cheerful laughter. He tells Gaimon not to be disappointed, pointing out that meeting them after twenty years is a great thing, and jokes that if it had been thirty years, Gaimon might already be dead. Luffy then invites Gaimon to join his crew and search for the One Piece together.