Jesus, being a Teacher, used different techniques to get his teaching across and it is clear that exaggeration was one of those techniques. The stories we remember best frequently use exaggeration as a vehicle for the truth.

The two men in the parable may have acted in an extreme manner, but Jesus indicates that they acted within the range of their possibilities, purposes and business acumen. The first man seems to have taken a greater risk in hiding the pearl again. Jesus, of course, does not go into details about possible consequences, for his parables are not meant to give detailed analyses of circumstances but simply to make one major point.

The two parables deal with human wisdom, which often manifests itself through the need to calculate. Human wisdom is often a calculating wisdom. The two men were prudent: their ability to calculate the value of the pearls and the risk involved in trying to acquire them meant that their sacrifice was prudent and not the foolish action it could easily have turned out to be.