“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. Adopted by Steve Jobs.
A Cock scratched about to find a grain of food to eat for himself and his family, when he turned up a precious jewel.
“Alas!” said the Cock. “I am sure you are something valued by your owner, but I would rather have a single grain of barleycorn than all the jewels in the world.”
Moral of the Story: No benefit, no value. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
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Why We Loved It: Oh, the powerful simplicity of these fables! This little fable is like a log cabin or straw manger: not an adorned grandiose tome, just a humble little story. But from it a great truth.
This teaching is a powerful reminder about value being a function of demand, and demand being a function of benefit to another. This concept is repeated over and over by the The Essential Aesop by my co-author father, Arnold Zegarelli, as, “Don’t sell an empty bag,” meaning to give substantive benefits to others, and always give equal to or greater than the price. That is, don’t cheat anyone. Some people have phrased this concept as, “The Profitable Servant,” [1, 2] which teaches to go beyond the even money, and beyond the expectation (something like, there’s no profit created for another in doing only what is expected).
Some people call this, “going the extra mile.“
Perhaps it is more discretely viewed in world of business where money is tangible form of measure, but the concept is everywhere: fulfilling a need or a desire that creates demand. This fable reminds us that it’s not about our own profit, it’s about creating the profit for someone else, and, in this profit for another, the other finds value in us.
No art is perfect unto itself. Art does not serve itself. It just sits on the wall, until someone looks at it, feels it, and laughs or cries. Only then has art done its job. Thus the adage, “Ars non servit sibi.” (“Art does not serve itself.”)
“Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.” ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” ~ Jesus, ONE: 576, [183]
“Nulla ars in se ipsa perfecta est.“; “Ars non servit sibi.”* ~grz
“Nulla ars in se ipsa perfecta est.” (“No art is perfect unto itself.”) “Ars non servit sibi.” (“Art does not serve itself.”) ~grz
[1] The ONE LinkedIn Reference Set Index [GRZ183] [LinkedIn #GRZ_183]
[2] A Bag of Talents, a Profitable Servant, and a Pile of Manure [GRZ173][LinkedIn #GRZ_173]
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Here’s a deep-dive analysis of Gregg Zegarelli’s “Value is as Value Does – No. 28 – The Cock and the Jewel” from The Essential Aesop.
🧭 1. Zegarelli’s Ethos: Value, Reciprocity, and Purpose
a. Core Value Thesis: Utility Defines Worth
Zegarelli sharpens Aesop’s ancient premise: value is not absolute—it is entirely relational. A jewel, regardless of objective rarity or beauty, is worthless to the hungry. This is not a judgment against the jewel, but a statement about the true arbiter of value—contextual need.
“No benefit, no value.”
This marks Zegarelli’s ethos as intensely pragmatic, but not cynical. He doesn’t denigrate art, luxury, or abstract worth—but rather clarifies that worth manifests only through fulfillment of need or desire. This is not just economic—it’s existential.
b. The Profitable Servant Ethos
Zegarelli reiterates one of the pillars of his moral philosophy: the idea of being a profitable servant.
“Don’t sell an empty bag.”
This doctrine implies that value is found in the other’s gain, not in one’s assertion of worth. It expands Jesus’s “go the extra mile” into a business principle: be useful, exceed expectations, create surplus for others. Only then are we truly valuable.
In this, Zegarelli asserts a counter-capitalist twist: rather than extract value, create it for someone else—and in that, your own value arises.
🎓 2. Pedagogical Technique: From Parable to Principle
a. Fable as Minimalist Teaching Tool
The fable itself is strikingly simple: one sentence from the Cock, one object lesson. Zegarelli leans into this simplicity as a teaching method. He calls it a “log cabin” or “straw manger”—basic in form, yet foundational in meaning.
This minimalist parable serves as a micro-lesson in economics, ethics, and identity—a technique that models how the essence of wisdom can reside in everyday perception.
b. Layered Analogies and Quotations
Zegarelli then builds a multi-level teaching scaffold:
- Coleridge’s “Water, water everywhere…” underscores that abundance without usability is still deprivation.
- The Gospel line: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” ties value to love, focus, and soul.
- Latin aphorisms—“Ars non servit sibi” and “Nulla ars in se ipsa perfecta est”—unite aesthetic philosophy with value theory.
This is Zegarelli’s signature pedagogy: elevating Aesop into multi-disciplinary resonance by aligning fable with scripture, literature, economics, and metaphysics.
🧠 3. Philosophical Integration: Value as Reflection of Self and Other
Zegarelli’s interpretation offers a profound insight: the jewel remains a jewel, but not to the Cock. In this, he delivers a Socratic punch: objects are not inherently valuable—only actions are.
But then comes a deeper point: value is not even about the object, but about the relationship between giver and recipient. This pushes into the terrain of gift theory, economic mutualism, and even theology (e.g., the Parable of the Talents).
Thus, art is not art until it is felt, talent is not talent until it serves, and value is not value unless it fills a need.
🧾 4. Conclusion: Know Thy Audience, Serve Their Need
Zegarelli isn’t merely interpreting a fable—he’s instilling a duty-based worldview:
“It’s not about your worth. It’s about what others can derive from you.”
This echoes across his writing:
- In business: deliver more than you’re paid.
- In ethics: your usefulness defines your integrity.
- In culture: value systems that fail to meet human need will collapse, regardless of idealism.
The Cock and the Jewel, in Zegarelli’s rendering, is not a dismissal of the jewel—but a reminder to be of use, not of assertion. The Cock cannot eat prestige. And we cannot eat our egos.
🔑 Zegarelli Take-Away:
“No art is perfect unto itself; it becomes valuable only in another’s experience.”
This is not just about value—it’s about purpose.
Not about what you have, but what you do with it, for others.
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© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.
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