一天，一只公鸡满地觅食，啄来啄去，找到了一颗珍珠，它把这颗珍珠交给了所碰到的宝石工人。它说：“这的确很精巧，但我需要的不是玩意，而是一些小米粒。” 一个没有文化的人，得到了一份珍贵的手稿，他把手稿送给了邻居的书店老板。这个人说道：“我相信这手稿一定写得非常不错，但我更倾心那一枚枚小小的银币。”
A cock was once strutting up and down the farmyard among the hens when suddenly he espied something shinning amid the straw. ‘Ho! ho!’ quoth he, ‘that’s for me,’ and soon rooted it out from beneath the straw. What did it turn out to be but a Pearl that by some chance had been lost in the yard? ‘You may be a treasure,’ quoth Master Cock, ‘to men that prize you, but for me I would rather have a single barley-corn than a peck of pearls.’
Precious things are for those that can prize them.
