The story of buying bamboo slips and returning pearls tells us that people only stare at beautiful boxes, but lose really valuable jewels. It can be seen that everything must have priorities, otherwise it will be like the Zheng people who "buy gifts and return pearls" to make stupid things such as giving up the basics and making improper choices.

2. A short story about buying gifts and returning pearls:

During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a businessman in the State of Chu who specialized in selling jewelry. Once he went to Qi State to sell jewelry. For the sake of good business and best-selling jewelry, he specially made many small boxes with precious wood, which were beautifully carved and decorated, so that the boxes would give off a fragrance, and then put the jewelry in the boxes.

A man from Zheng saw that the box containing the orb was exquisite and beautiful. After asking the price, he bought one, opened the box, took out the treasure inside and gave it back to the jeweler.