God's Pearl Shell

"I would like to add a story or two to those which have been related by Bishop Richards. Down where I have recently visited, our people there have a seasonal occupation of pearl shell diving, and our men are the best shell divers in the islands of French Oceania. Why are they the best divers? Because they keep the Word of Wisdom, and they can stay under the water at a depth of ninety feet for upwards of two minutes and forty seconds. They dive to that depth and bring up the pearl shell which gives them part of their means of support for the remainder of the year until the next season approaches.

"This one young Latter-day Saint placed his pearl shells on the shore in two piles, one was a large one and one a rather small one, and when the trader came around with whom he had the contract to sell his pearl shells, the trader asked him about the small pile. He said "Is that yours?" He said: "No, that is not mine."

The trader said: "Where did it come from?"
He said: "Oh, I dove for it."
"Well, why is it not yours?"
He said: "That is God's pearl shell."
"Who has the right to sell it?"
He said: "I can sell it."
"Well, then, I will buy it."
"Yes you may buy it, but not at the contract price. You will pay the market price for God's pearl shell"; because the market price had gone up since he had signed the contract.

"And so he sold God's pearl shell at the market price and his own at the price for which he had contracted. And when I inquired what he would have done had the price gone down instead of up, he said: "I would have left it with mine. I would always see to it that God gets the top price for his pearl shell.""

Matthew Cowley Speaks (Deseret Book Co., 1971), pp. 5-6.