"Would You Pass The Test Or Would You?"

The Emperor's Seed
By: Author Unknown

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!"