choose his successor. Instead of choosing one ofhis assistants or his
children, he decided something different. He called young people in
thekingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down
and choose the next emperor. Ihave 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 very special seed. I want you
toplant 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, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!"
One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like the others,
received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story.
She helped him get a pot and 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 talkabout their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.
Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, 4
weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing. By now, others were talking
about their plants but Ling didn'thave a plant, and he felt like a
failure. Six months went by-still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew
hehad 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 honest about what happened,
Ling felt sick to his stomach, but heknew 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 the other youths. They were
beautiful-in all shapes andsizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor
and manyof the other kinds laughedat 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 ofthe room with his empty pot. He ordered his
guardsto bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor
knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will haveme 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 bringit back to me today. But I gave you all boiled
seeds which would not grow. Allof you, except Ling, have brought me
trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not
grow, 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!"
The Prophet taught,"Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and
righteousness leads to Paradise.
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