String of pearls, Zales store.
When I worked as a librarian at Michigan Reformatory, I had to take law books to the protection cells and help with shakedowns of general cells. This gave me opportunity to observe three ways in which prisoners handled possessions.
The first group simply had what they had and made no effort to exaggerate or conceal what they owned.
The second group, to prevent extortion or theft, took pains to conceal any useful item they owned, whether by hiding it where it could not easily be discovered, or by putting a sham front on it.
A very few—and this third group interested me the most—ostensibly stacked boxes of toothpaste, soap, cards and other small items of prison value for all to see, pretending a wealth they did not have. Every box was empty.
Jesus was their opposite; he came to the earth with real treasure (he likened it to a pearl of great price, or a buried treasure) but, like the second group of prisoners, he cloaked what he had. Although higher than any earthly king, he came as a the poorest of commoners, and forbade his disciples to reveal who he really was. The greatest of philosophers, he spoke in parables. The purest of men, he mingled with thieves, prostitutes, revolutionaries and extortionists. A healer of the first rank, he admonished those he cured to say nothing.
Jesus cloaked who he was and his message so that only those who were serious about following God would penetrate to the reality of himself.