The sequence that this question is asking about appears fairly early on in the novel. The old man in question calls himself the King of Salem, and he's a wonderfully enigmatic character that blesses Santiago with great pieces of wisdom. He also gives Santiago the Urim and Thummim, and the...
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sequence in question comes just after Santiago receives these two colored stones.
The old man tells Santiago that the stones can help make decisions, but the old man urges Santiago to make his own decisions whenever possible. He then tells Santiago to follow his destiny all the way through to the end. Santiago is ready to leave, but the old man says that he has one more story to tell, and the story is about a shopkeeper's son. The shopkeeper sends his son to a wise man to find the secret of happiness, and the wise man has the boy wander around holding a spoon with some drops of oil. The boy is supposed to wander the property, marvel at the grandness of it, and not lose the oil. The boy is unable to do it. He can only observe the grandness but lose the oil or keep the oil and miss the grandness. The wise man then says that the secret of happiness is being able to do both.
The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.
As a shepherd, Santiago immediately grasps the story's meaning. He can travel the world and experience all it has to offer, but he must also never lose sight of the sheep he has been entrusted with. The message of the story, then, is finding a balance in life, or that experiencing the world is great as long as you never forget what you as a person carry with you into that world.