Emperor's Seed - good one
hello everybody.. just read it .. thought of sharing with u all
Emperor's Seed
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!"
So friends I think u must have learn moral of the story.
thanks for reading...
intruder..
