10英语哲理故事Dont judge a book by its cover

Don't judge a book by its..来自英语哲理短文00:0001:32

A long time ago, there lived a wise man named Zun-Nun in Egypt. A young man came to visit him and asked, ”Teacher, why do you dress in such a way? Nowadays it’s necessary to dress neatly, isn’t it? Or how will people know you’re really a special and wise man?”


Zun-Nun smiled, took a ring from his finger and said,” Young friend, I’ll answer your question, but first do one thing for me. Take this ring to the market. Can you sell it for one chip of gold?”


When the young man looked at Zun-Nun’s dirty ring, he thought to himself, ”How will I sell it at that price?”


He showed the ring to the vegetable, meat and fish traders and others in the market. But nobody was willing to pay a chip of gold.


He returned and told this to Zun-Nun. Zun-Nun said, ”Now go to the gold shop and show the ring to the owner. Don’t give a price, just see how much he will pay.”


One hour later , the young man was back. ”Teacher, people in the market really didn’t know the value of this ring. The gold shop owner offered me 1,000 chips of gold.”


Zun-Nun smiled. ”That’s the answer to your question, my friend. Someone can’t be valued only from his dress. The ring was a gift from the emperor, ”he said.


文章大意：

很久以前，在埃及住着一位著名的神秘人物，他的名字叫做祖南。有一个年轻人前去拜访他，问道：“老师，我不明白为什么您的衣着如此简单？现如今难道不是应该穿着整齐点吗？否则，人们怎么知道你是智者？”


祖南笑了笑，把手上的戒指拿了下来，说：“年轻人，在我问你问题之前，你可否先为我做一件事？把这枚戒指拿去市场，看能不能卖一块金子？”


年轻人看了看祖南那枚不太干净的戒指，心想：“这枚戒指怎么能够卖到那个价格？”


于是，他把戒指拿去给菜贩、屠夫和鱼贩子及市场上的其它商贩看，但是没有人愿意用一块金子来换他的戒指。


他沮丧地回去了，并将这个消息告诉了祖南。祖南说：“现在你去金店，把这枚戒指给金店老板看。不用给出你的价格，看他会给你多少钱。”


过了一个小时，年轻人回来了，高兴地说：“老师，菜市场上的商贩根本不懂这枚戒指的价值所在。金店老板给了我1000块金子呢。”


祖南笑了，说：“这个也是你提出的问题的答案，我的朋友。有些人的才华不能单从他的穿着来判断。其实这枚戒指是皇帝送给我的礼物。”