Stories by Sukhvinder Singh

Once, a Guru was trying to preach a valuable principle to his disciples, but they didn’t take the Guru’s advice seriously.

One day, he gathered all his students and gave them a small box made up of clay. He asked them to go to the market and sell it and get a good deal. All the students wandered in the market throughout the day, trying to sell the box, but were unsuccessful. They came back in the evening to the monastery.

The Guru asked what happened, and the students replied, “No one bought the box.”

The Guru said, “Fine, no problem.”

The next day, the Guru came and asked the student, “Make one more attempt to sell the box.”

The students, out of reverence, reluctantly acquiesced and went again to the market to sell the box of clay. They wandered in the market and tried hard for the whole day, but no one bought. They came back tired with the same answer.

The third day, the Guru again approached the students and asked them to try for the last time. The students were quite reluctant, but due to a strong insistence, they agreed.

The students tried hard for the third time, but no one bought that box of clay. This time the situation was awful, as some people laughed at them, some ridiculed them, and asked them to leave and not come again with that cheap box of clay. They were insulted badly by everyone.

Finally, the students returned quite exasperated and disappointed. They told the Guru, “Now people are laughing at us; they have insulted us on seeing this cheap box of clay in our hands. We are totally frustrated, and we will never go to the market again.”

The next day, the Guru called his students, gave them the same box of clay, and asked them to go again.

“We will not go to the market to sell this cheap box of clay,” the students retorted with brevity.

“Hold on,” said the Guru. “Look, I changed something in this box.”

“What change?” the students asked curiously.

The Guru said, “I have placed a precious diamond in the box.”

He opened the box, and there was a precious sparkling diamond inside. The diamond seemed to be invaluable. On seeing the diamond, the students got excited and agreed to sell the box of clay.

The students went to the market and came back within an hour. They seemed to be happy and joyful. They managed to sell the box at a good price.

They said to the Guru, “Finally, we have sold your box of clay at a very good price.”

The Guru asked, “Excellent! But how did you manage to sell the box this time?”

The students responded, “We went to the market. We opened the box and showed the diamond to the buyers. On seeing the diamond, a lot of buyers got interested. Within no time, the auction started, and within 10 minutes, we secured the best deal.”

The Guru remarked, “Great. You have done a good job today. Nevertheless, what insights have you gained and learned from this particular experience?”

The students exclaimed in astonishment, “Learned !! What do you mean by saying that? What did we learn from this experience? There is nothing to learn. You gave us a box of clay with a diamond in it to sell in the market. We followed your recommendations and sold the clay box. What more is there to learn now?”

“My son, an essential lesson can be gleaned from this incident,” the Guru said with a merry smile.

Surprisingly, the students inquired, “What lesson?”

The Guru replied, “We human beings are just like the box of clay. The box of clay holds no intrinsic worth within the context of the business or professional realm. Nevertheless, our skills resemble the precious diamond. Once we possess skills, our worth increases significantly.

Individuals in the professional realm will only appreciate you if you possess some valuable skills. Devoid of skills, the professional world will never appreciate your worth; instead, they may belittle or ridicule you. To enhance your value, focus on developing important skills within yourself.

The Guru continued, “In this professional world, the unfortunate truth is that people do not value people. They only value their skills. The true value of people in this materialistic world is the value of their skills. Beggars beg, and they do not get a penny sometimes, whereas skilled people get in abundance before they demand.”

The story ends here. The disciples were profoundly moved by the veracity that their Guru imparted.

The moral of the story is: "It is the Skills that are valued in this professional world and not the Individual. Hence if someone intends to increase his worth, he should develop valuable skills."