Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, there was a king who didn’t have any
children. This made the king very sad, and he always wondered who would be
the next ruler after him.
One day, the king came up with an idea. He wanted to adopt a child to be the
future king. So, he sent a message to all the boys in the kingdom who were
between eight to ten years old, asking them to come to the palace with their
parents the next day.
The next morning, excited parents with their boys gathered at the palace. The
king gave each boy a tiny seed of a beautiful flower and told them to plant it in a
pot at home. He said that they should bring the blooming flower plant back to the
palace on a special day.
After some time, when the flowers had grown, the king asked all the children to
return with their plants. Everyone came with flourishing flowers except for one
child who had an empty pot.
The king asked the child why there was no plant in his pot.
The child sadly replied, “Dear Lord, I planted the seed you gave me, watered it,
and took care of it every day, but it didn’t grow. My parents told me to have faith
and keep nursing it. I am still waiting for it to sprout.”
The king took the child’s hand and addressed the crowd.
“ You all brought beautifully bloomed flower plants to impress me. But I know that
those plants did not grow from the seeds I gave you last time because all the
seeds I gave were boiled in hot water. Therefore, those seeds couldn’t have
grown.
Only this child and his parents were honest and didn’t replace it with another
seed like you all did.”
He praised the child more and announced to the public that he will be adopted as
the future king because of his sincerity.
The other children and their parents felt ashamed of their dishonesty. From that
day on, the honest child and his parents lived happily in the palace, showing the
value of being honest.