This actually happened. Here’s Pepys himself, from his diary entry dated Tuesday 4 September, two days into what would become known as The Great Fire of London:

“Up by break of day to get away the remainder of my things; which I did by a lighter at the Iron gate and my hands so few, that it was the afternoon before we could get them all away.

Sir W. Pen and I to Tower-streete, and there met the fire burning three or four doors beyond Mr. Howell’s, whose goods, poor man, his trayes, and dishes, shovells, &c., were flung all along Tower-street in the kennels, and people working therewith from one end to the other; the fire coming on in that narrow streete, on both sides, with infinite fury. Sir W. Batten not knowing how to remove his wine, did dig a pit in the garden, and laid it in there; and I took the opportunity of laying all the papers of my office that I could not otherwise dispose of. And in the evening Sir W. Pen and I did dig another, and put our wine in it; and I my Parmazan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things.”

Pepys’s house on Seething Lane was perilously close to the fire – but thanks to the wind direction would ultimately escape undamaged – and he’s managed to ship out most of his possessions on a lighter (a rowing boat used for cargo). But he’s left with his cheese, which must have been a pretty hefty wheel – weighing up to 40Kg – of Parmesan. He likely received it as a gift – read: backhander – from a naval supplier (Pepys oversaw the fitting out of the King’s ships), since it would also have been very valuable. Thus, he buries it, hoping to save it from the flames.

There is no record of him ever recovering it, so it’s quite possibly still there. These days buried beneath an enormous office building or a soulless gastropub.