A boy came to an old Chinese clever man and said:
"I came to ask your advice. I suffer terrible feelings of unworthiness, and I no longer want to live. Everyone tells me I'm a fool and a failure. I ask you, master, help me!"
The wise man looked at the boy and told him: "Excuse me, but I'm very busy now and can't help you. There is an urgent matter that I should take care of ..." then he paused, thought, and added: "But if you agree to help me, I'll gladly repay good for you."
"... Of course, Master!" Replied the boy, and he mumbled to himself how again he's so unimportant.
"Well," said the wise man, and took a small ring with a beautiful pearl off his fingers "Take my horse and go with this ring to the marketplace. I have to sell the ring urgently to pay off debt. Try to get a decent price for the ring, and don't agree for less than one gold coin! Go now and come back as soon as possible! "
The boy took the ring and galloped away. When he got to the marketplace, he showed it to various merchants, and they examined it closely. But once the traders heard the boy's ring price they lost interest completely and some even laughed in his face. Only one old trader was honest enough to explain him that one gold coin is too high price to pay for such a ring, and most likely it would fetch no more than copper, or in the best case, maybe a silver coin.
Upon hearing these words, the boy got very upset, because he remembered the old man's instructions not to accept anything less than a gold coin. After he passed all the marketplace and asked hundreds of people, he saddled the horse and set off. Depressed because of his failure, he returned to the house of the wise man.
"Master, I was not able to make your request," he said, "At best I was could get some silver coins, but you told me not to agree to anything less than a gold coin, and they told me that the ring is not worth so much."
"This is a very important point, boy!" Replied the wise man "before attempting to sell the ring, isn't it a good idea to check how much it really worth? And who can do it better than a jeweler? Take the horse again and ride to the jewler. Find out what the price of the ring. But don't sell it to him, no matter what he offers you! Instead, Come back to me immediately. "
The young man jumped on the horse and set off to the jeweler. Once there, the jeweler examined the ring with a magnifying glass for a long time, then weighed it on a gentle weight.
Finally, he turned to the boy and said:
"Tell your master that now I can't give him more than 58 gold coins for the ring. But if he will wait a little, I'll give him 70 gold coins for the ring."
"70 gold coins ?!" The boy cried. He laughed, thanked the jeweler and rushed back to the wise man.
When the old man heard the story from the excited boy, he said: "Remember, my child, you are like this ring. You're precious and unique! Only a true expert can evaluate the true value of you. So why are you wasting your time, wander and listen to the opinion of the any fool? "
No comments:
Post a Comment