Once there was an emperor in the Far
East who was growing old and knew it was coming time to choose his
successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or one of his own
children, he decided to do something different.
He called all the young people in the
kingdom together one day. He said, "It has come time for me to step down and
to choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." The kids
were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you
a seed today. One seed. It is a very special seed. I want you to go home,
plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from today with what
you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you
bring to me, and the one I choose will be the next emperor of the kingdom!"
There was one boy named Ling who was
there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and
excitedly told his mother the whole story. She helped him get a pot and some
planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day
he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.
After about three weeks, some of the
other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were
beginning to grow. Ling kept going home and checking his seed, but nothing
ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by. Still nothing.
By now others were talking about their
plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months
went by, still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed.
Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say
anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.
A year finally went by and all the
youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection.
Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she
encouraged him to go, and to take his pot, and to be honest about what
happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right.
He took his empty pot to the palace.
When Ling arrived, he was amazed at
the variety of plants grown by all the other youths. They were beautiful, in
all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the
other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey
nice try."
When the emperor arrived, he surveyed
the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back.
"My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor.
"Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!"
All of a sudden, the emperor spotted
Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to
bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a
failure! Maybe he will have me killed!"
When Ling got to the front, the
Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were
laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He
looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor!
His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his
seed. How could he be the new emperor?
Then the emperor said, "One year ago
today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it,
water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds
which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and
plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grown, you
substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with
the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he
is the one who will be the new emperor!"
