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!"
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