One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

 Approaching the boy, he asked, 
“What are you doing?”
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the sea. The surf is up and the tide is going out.  If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”              

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it back into the surf.  Then, smiling at the man, he said, "I made a difference for that one.”

黃昏時刻，正值海水退潮，成千上萬隻的海星被海浪衝到沙灘上來。
脫離海水的海星，像失去母親的嬰兒，痛苦地扭曲牠們的身體，掙扎著想要返回母親的懷抱。
但海水卻越退越遠。
一個來到沙灘玩耍的少年，看到這幅景象，就彎下腰來，撿起被沖上岸的海星，一一擲回海中，
以免牠們困脫離海洋過久而死亡。

遠遠走來一個在沙灘漫步中的中年男子，看著忙碌的少年好一會兒，
搖搖頭說：「被沖上來的海星那麼多，你不可能將他們全部扔回海中。
而且，今天扔回去了，明天可能又被沖上來。將這裡的海星扔回去了，
世界上其他地方又有更多的海星被沖上岸。難道你不知道自己再怎麼做，結果都一樣嗎？」
「我知道，」少年笑一笑，彎下腰，又撿起一枚海星，將牠擲回海裡，
說：「但是對這隻海星來說，可就不一樣了。」