A Valuable Lesson

 is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Quick walkthrough
After accumulating at least 50 Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps, the player must locate Festus at the Sunset Sarsaparilla Headquarters, which will initiate (and immediately end) the associated quest The Legend of the Star. He will relay the Sunset Sarsaparilla story and give the player this quest, whose completion will grant a prize.

Detailed walkthrough
After finding at least 50 Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps, the player can approach Festus to receive the prize, which is, amusingly, the honor of listening to the real story of how Sunset Sarsaparilla came to be. At this point, the number of star caps exceeding 50 is simply converted into bottle caps and given back to the player. This course of action initiates and fails the preliminary quest, The Legend of the Star.

If you read between the lines of Festus' story, you may surmise that the man who "invented" the drink actually had the true inventor killed and stole the invention. If you ask about the real prize, Festus tells you that due to legal constraints the main prize had been removed, and another is being offered that should suffice. This triggers the current quest, which instructs you to go to the Sunset Sarsaparilla Prize Vault to collect your prize.

The final destination is marked inside the factory, to get there follow these instructions:


 * From Festus head through the North door and carry on across the hall to the room with the hole in the roof.
 * Walk up the wreckage to the 2nd floor.
 * Take your first left and then right. You should see a very long corridor.
 * Walk straight to the end of that corridor and you should then be in the room with the hole in the floor.
 * You'll know your in the correct room, as it has a wall safe at the back and a 'Broken Personal Assistant'.
 * The hole then leads to the prize room!

The real prize turns out to be about 1500 bottle caps, found in 13 Sunset Sarsaparilla crates, each averaging roughly 115 caps, a number which might be scaled according to the player's level. There are also 319 Sunset Sarsaparilla deputy badges, which are weightless and worthless (finding them all may require pulling crates off the top shelves). Also, in the corner lies the body of Allen Marks, a holotape, and Pew Pew, a unique laser pistol. Marks is "wearing" one of the deputy badges, which is actually just lying atop his body (moving the body will cause the badge to fall to the floor). The holotape (which ends the quest when picked up) reveals that he was a murderer and a thief, and a computer found in the bottling area of the building seems to reveal the moment Marks broke into the factory. There are indications that several robots were damaged in the incident, but also that the intruder had been wounded in the process. According to Marks' holotape, the sealed vault was completely airtight, explaining his eventual death after being merely wounded.