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 choose a sincere person.

He called all the young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "The time has come for me now to step down and to choose the next Emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." All were shocked. He continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today. 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, 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 from the Emperor. He took the seed, went home and excitedly told his mother the whole story. She helped him get a pot and some planting soil. He planted the seed in that pot 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 came out. He felt like a failure. Six months went by, still nothing.  He guessed that he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. He became very sorry about his luck.

A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the Emperor for inspection,  Ling took his pot as well. 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. Seeing his empty pot many other people laughed at him. A few of them felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try."  

When the Emperor arrived, he cast a glance in the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My God, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown out of those seeds?" said the Emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next Emperor." All started looking at one another - who will be 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. 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, 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 single 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 to you. Ling was the only one who had the courage and honesty to bring me the pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Emperor."