In the far flung jungles of Jhakhanpur, a lump of coal underwent great pressure for long time and turned into a diamond named him Heera.
Heera kept waiting for ages for someone to discover him. His wait was over when a shepherd noticed its glitter. Heera felt very happy but being precious stone worth millions of rupees, he had no way to express his happiness. Shepherd kept fiddling with Heera for sometime and looked puzzled. After sometime he got a collar belt out of his sack and fixed Heera into one of its groove. He put the collar belt around the neck of the youngest lamb in his herd. Heera then realized that the shepherd didn't knew anything about diamond. Heera kept laughing while hanging around the neck of the lamb.
After a week, a farmer purchased the lamb from shepherd by paying 20Kgs of grains. For the collar belt and the shining stone he paid 2 kgs more. The shepherd felt very profitable. Heera laughed again, but had any human ever herd the laugh of a gem?
Farmer's wife noticed the glow of the precious stone and removed it from the collar belt. In the soft hands of the woman, Heera felt certain of now getting the treatment that he deserved. The woman put Heera into a transparent jar and started to use it like a lamp.
Definitely better than hanging around a sheep's neck but not what Heera had expected. He could do nothing but smiling at the situation.
Once the shopkeeper of the village saw the lamp that gave faint light without consuming any fuel and was impressed. He offered the farmer Rs 500 for the lamp. The farmer was able to negotiate it for Rs 1000. The farmer thought the deal as very profitable but like before Heera just laughed.
The shopkeeper kept Heera as a show piece in his shop where every customer could see its shine. Once a jeweller came to the shop. He immediately identified Heera to be real diamond worth millions. He asked the shopkeeper where did he got it from. On hearing the reply, jeweller immediately realized that the shopkeeper knows nothing about worth of the shining stone he has. The jeweller expressed his desire to purchase the stone at double the price the shopkeeper had purchased. Shopkeeper refused to sell it for anything less than Rs 3000. The jeweller negotiated a bit and got it for Rs 2500.
Like all the times, once again Heera was sold for a price that was not even a fraction of his real worth. But this time Heera cried as if his heart was torn into millions part. All this time the purchaser knew nothing about his real worth. He couldn't bear the pain that people who knew his worth too will under-value him.
Epilogue:
In this story Heera is symbolic to anything that is valuable, living or non-living. It can be a precious metal or a key team member in a team or a valuable friend.
The pain that Heera endures is the feeling that only living things, specifically humans, experience when they are not valued as per their worth.
In the business of life we often try to gain by paying less. And this story inspires us, to pay the right price of valuables. It applies equally to relations, employments, business and many other areas.
Irrespective of who you are and how many roles you play, take time to know your gems before they experience the same pain that Heera did.
This is an adaptation of a folk tale.
Image taken from http://www.a1-diamond.com/images/diamond.jpg
