A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.

They didnt look like much but they intrigued the man， so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach， he threw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it， until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful， precious stone！ Excited， the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the twenty or so clay balls he had left.

Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe fifty or sixty of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure， he could have taken home tens of thousands. But he had just thrown it away！

Its like that with people. We look at someone， maybe even ourselves， and we see the external clay vessel. It doesnt look like much from the outside. It isnt always beautiful or sparkling， so we discount it.

We see some people as less important than others who are more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside the less attractive people.

Each one of us is a treasure. If we take the time to get to know people， then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

有個(gè)人在海邊探洞。在一個(gè)洞中，他在地上發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)帆布包，里面裝著變硬了的泥丸。好像是有人搓了一些泥丸，擱在陽光下曬干了。

這些泥丸看上去平常無奇，但還是激起了他的興趣，他把包帶出了洞。他一邊在沙灘上徜徉著，一邊將泥丸一個(gè)個(gè)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地拋進(jìn)大海。

他并沒有多想什么，直到一顆泥丸掉在巖石上摔裂了。原來里邊是一個(gè)精美絕倫的寶石。他激動(dòng)萬分，迫不及待地逐一摔開剩余的泥丸。每一個(gè)泥丸里邊都有相似的寶貝。這樣，在剩下的大約二十個(gè)泥丸中他找到了價(jià)值數(shù)千美元的寶石。

此時(shí)，他才如夢初醒。他在海灘上已經(jīng)溜達(dá)了很長一段時(shí)間，并且已將五六十個(gè)泥丸，連帶其中的財(cái)寶一起拋到了海浪之中。他原本可以將上萬美元而不是區(qū)區(qū)幾千美元帶回家的，但他把它們白白丟掉了。

這和對待人一樣。當(dāng)我們看待人，甚至是看待我們自己的時(shí)候，我們看到的只是外面的泥殼。從外面看沒有什么價(jià)值，不華麗也無光澤，所以我們不加重視。

我們以為貌美的、時(shí)髦的、有名的或有錢的人更重要。其實(shí)，我們根本沒有花時(shí)間去發(fā)掘那些其貌不揚(yáng)的人，他們身上有著不為人知的寶貝。

我們每個(gè)人都是一塊寶。倘若我們花時(shí)間去了解的話，那么剝?nèi)ツ鄽?，耀眼的珍寶就?huì)閃閃發(fā)光。