It seemed too good to be true and in the end, it was. Billionaire makes fortune from inventing Corona beer and leaves his riches to everyone in the village where he was born. Er, not quite. When he passed away this August, Antonino Fernandez didn’t actually leave £200m to the tiny Spanish hamlet of Cerezales del Condado.

But all the same he was pretty decent to the place. He has sent it stacks of cash over the years; so much so that churches, foundations and a local cultural centre arose from his generosity. He had no direct heir but gave his many nephews and nieces (who live in the area) so much dosh that the village benefited greatly, albeit in trickle-down rather than direct donation.

Fernandez, born in poverty as one of 13 children and ended up as a Mexican beer magnate, died at 99 with the words of Andrew Carnegie; “a man who dies rich dies disgraced,” ringing in his ears. Indeed, it seems that he really did practise what the Scottish steel magnate preached: “There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.”

The 20 wealthiest countries in the world

A Spanish newspaper puts his generosity down to his religious faith, which Fernandez always believed supported him during the trauma of an abduction in 1977 at the hands of the Communist League, during which he was shot in the leg.

Yet goodness me, the billionaires of this world have a problem with the whole notion of inheritance. One would have thought that they would all act like Fernandez, but no. There are those like John P Getty, who left over $660m (about $3bn today) to his eponymous museum, thus ensuring personal immortality. Leona Helmsley left £12m to her pet dog Trouble.

Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Show all 10 1 /10 Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Bill Gates - $75 bn The creator of Microsoft is worth $78 billion. He has topped the list for 17 out of the past 22 years - though his net worth shrank by $4.2bn (£3bn) to $75bn (£53.7bn). Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Amancio Ortega - $67 bn The Spanish business who set up the Zara chain of high-street shops is worth $67 billion. REUTERS/ AP Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Warren Buffet - $60.8 bn Warren buffet is the world's most successful investor. Forbes rates him as being worth $60.8 billion. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Carlos Slim Helu - $50 bn Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom magnate, is this year’s biggest loser with a fortune of $50 billion, down from $77.1 billion last year. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Jeff Bezos - $45.2 bn Amazon’s Jeff Bezos moved up to the fifth from the fifteenth spot last year; his net worth increased to $45.2 billion. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Mark Zuckerberg - $44.6 bn The biggest gainer on the 2016 list is Mark Zuckerberg , whose fortune is up $11.2 billion for a total net worth of $44.6 billion. He is the sixth richest in the world. Getty Images Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Larry Ellison - $43.6 bn The American entrepreneur has a fortune of $43.6 billion Bloomberg Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Michael Bloomberg - $40 bn Michael Bloomberg, whose media and financial empire has created a personal fortune of $40 bn, is said to be willing to spend up to $1bn on a presidential campaign AP Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Charles Koch and David Koch - $39.6 bn Charles Koch, along with brother David Koch of Koch Industries are joint sixth and are valued at $39.6 billion. Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Liliane Bettencourt - $36.1 bn Liliane Bettencourt is the heir to the L’Oreal empire Getty Images

Various others have prevaricated so much that six years ago, Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates launched the Giving Pledge, in an effort to convince America’s wealthiest individuals to commit to donating more than half of their fortunes to charity or philanthropy. So far more than 130 couples and individuals have signed up, although probably not all with the remarkable honesty of oil magnate George B Kaiser (net worth $10bn), who said “I suppose I arrived at my charitable commitment largely through guilt. I recognised early on that my good fortune was not due to superior personal character or initiative so much as it was to dumb luck.”