One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

    Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, "Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine." The crowd and the young man looked at the old man's heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn't fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.

    The people stared — how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? The young man looked at the old man's heart and saw its state and laughed. "You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears."

    "Yes," said the old man, "Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love — I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren't exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges — giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space in my heart. So now do you see what true beauty is? "

    The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands.

    The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man's heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man's heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.

    一個年輕人站在城鎮的中央，宣布他的心是整個山谷中最美麗的心。圍觀的群眾很多，他們都稱贊他的心的確是最完美的，沒有一點傷痕或者瑕疵。真的，他們一致認為這實在是他們見過的最美麗的心。這個年輕人非常自豪，更加起勁地大聲吹捧自己那顆美麗的心。

    突然，一位老人出現在人群面前，他說：“你的心不如我的美麗。”圍觀群眾和年輕人都朝老人的心看去，它有力地跳動著，卻布滿了傷疤，有的地方被挖走了，雖然重新補上了，但修補得不甚完整，留下參差不齊的疤痕。實際上，有的地方還露出很深的豁口。

    人們睜大了眼睛——他們想：他怎能說自己的心更美麗呢？年輕人看了看老人的心，見是這種情形，不禁笑了起來：“你不是在開玩笑吧？”他說。“把你的心和我的比一下，我的心是那么完美，而你的心卻布滿了傷疤和裂痕。”

    “是的，”老人說，“你的心從表面來看很完美，但我絕不會跟你交換。你看，每個傷疤都代表我為別人獻出的一份愛——我掏出一塊心給他們，他們常常會掏出自己的一塊回贈給我，但由于這兩塊不完全一樣，傷口的邊緣就留下了疤痕，不過我十分珍惜這些疤痕，因為它們能使我想起我們共同擁有的愛心。有時我送出了心，其他人并沒有回贈給我，因此就出現了這些深孔——獻出愛只是創造機會。盡管這些傷口疼痛，并且整日敞開著，卻能使我想起我給予他們的愛。我希望有一天，他們能夠回來填補上我心里的空間。你們現在明白什么是真正的美麗了吧？”

    年輕人默默無語地站著，淚水順著臉頰流下。他走到這位老人身邊，把手伸進自己完美而年輕美麗的心里，撕下一塊來。他用顫抖的雙手把它獻給這位老人。

    老人接過饋贈，把它放進自己的心里。然后他從自己疤痕累累的心里掏出一塊，放在年輕人心里的那個傷口上。正好放進去，但不是特別吻合，因為有一些疤痕。年輕人看著自己的心，看起來不再完美但比以前更美麗了，因為老人心中的愛也流淌到了他的心里。他們互相擁抱，然后肩并肩離開了。