During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was a jeweler in the State of Chu. He often travels between Chu and Zheng, doing some jewelry business. One day, he prepared some jewels and planned to sell them to Zheng. In order to attract customers and sell them at a good price, he thought of a good way. He chose some excellent wood and asked craftsmen to make exquisite and novel wooden boxes.

At the same time, he chose different precious spices to make the box emit charming fragrance. The box is ready. It looks golden and smells charming. This is really a rare work of art. He thought that if the jewels were put in these boxes, it would definitely attract Zheng's people. Maybe they would scramble to buy his own jewels, and then they would make a lot of money.

The jeweler carefully put the jewels in a special box and left Zheng with confidence. After arriving in Zheng, he displayed his jewels in a bustling market. Not surprisingly, shortly after the exhibition, many Zheng people gathered to admire his jewelry box.

To his surprise, these Zheng people are not interested in his jewelry, but in the wooden box with jewelry. They are in groups of three, and the topic of discussion is how special the style is and how beautiful the decoration is. This inevitably made him sweat on his forehead.

The jeweler was very excited to see a customer finally come to his house. After some bargaining, Zheng Guo gave the money to the jeweler and left with the box. But he just took a few steps, but he turned back. The jeweler thinks he has changed his mind and wants to return the jewels. Who knows that the man walked up to the jeweler and opened the box carefully.

Take out the jewels inside and give them to the jeweler, saying, "I left in a hurry just now, but I didn't find any jewels in the box." You must have put it there, sir. I'm here to return the jewels. "After returning the jewels to the jeweler, Zheng Guoren left happily, muttering," This wooden box is so beautiful, but I earned it. "

Moral:

Zheng people only stared at the exquisite wooden cases and gave up precious jewels. It can be seen that things must be clearly defined, and people who buy gifts and return pearls cannot only pay attention to the appearance of things and not see the essence of things. Only by seeing the essence of things clearly and prioritizing can we make appropriate choices.

The idiom originally meant to put back the wooden box bought to hold pearls; The metaphor is improper choice, and the secondary things are better than the main ones.