The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and a variety of cups—porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, some exquisite—telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said,
“If you have noticed, all the nice-looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. "
"Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. "
"What all of you really want is coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.
“Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! Don’t let the cups drive you ... enjoy the coffee instead.”
【中文譯文】：
一群畢業生，各自在事業上都已有所建樹，相約一起去看望他們年老的大學教授。談話一會兒就變成了各自對工作和生活壓力的抱怨。在用咖啡招待這些客人時，教授去廚房端來一大壺咖啡，并拿出各式各樣的咖啡杯——陶瓷的、塑料的、玻璃的、水晶的，有看上去普通的、有價值不菲的、有做工精細的——讓他們自己倒咖啡喝。
當所有學生手中都端了一杯咖啡后，教授發話了：
“如果你們注意一下，就會發現所有好看的昂貴的杯子都被挑走了，剩下的只是那些普通的和便宜的。當然，每個人都只想擁有最好的，這很正常，但這也是你們的問題和壓力的根源所在。”
“可以肯定的是，杯子本身與咖啡質量毫無關系。在很多時候，杯子讓咖啡更昂貴，某些時候，甚至讓我們看不清我們要喝的是什么。”
“其實你們真正想要的是咖啡，而不是杯子，但你們卻又都下意識去挑選最好的杯子，并觀察別人拿到的杯子。”
“現在設想一下：如果生活是杯中的咖啡，工作、財富和社會地位就是那些杯子。他們只是維持生活的工具而已，并不改變生活質量。有時候，我們在過于關注杯子的同時卻忘記了去品味上帝賜予的咖啡。所以，不要成為杯子的奴隸……好好品味杯中的咖啡。”
