Response to the Pearl

John Steinbeck's novella teaches us to not count your chickens before they hatch. "Then to the lovely gray surface of the pearl came the little things Kino wanted: a harpoon to take the place of one lost a year ago, a new harpoon of iron with a ring in the end of the shaft; and - his mind could hardly make the leap - a rifle - but why not, since he was so rich?" In this excerpt he thinks he is super rich but later he finds out that the pearl buyers would not buy it for nearly as much as he had thought.