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В данном случае "he only loved the knowledge" однозначно что-то вроде "ему просто нравилось знать чужую тайну", и уж никак не "любил Знание" which sounds like he was Harry Potter.

But it's not his mother who is telling us the story. It's Author. I just told you how strange that phrase sounds in Russian. It's up to you.

Then "...он собирал деньги, которые находил у дороги". If one says that the money "лежали" on the road, it sounds like someone put it there for some purpose.

Definitely not :)
Well, actually you can say "лежавшие" (not "лежащие") which means "money that lay on the road", and it would be okay too (but "лежащие" is here better anyway). But "полежавшие"...

There is no sequence of tenses in Russian. When the boy saw the money, it was the present tense for him. In Russian we say, for example: "He always told her that he loves her" (not "loved"). If you...

The English version wouldn't hurt.

At least for the "человека вырывает металл из земли, да он желает возвращаться, идти домой и так падает к земле" part.