22 The King and His Successor



The King and His Successor.

The king was growing old and wondered how to select his successor for training. He announced a competition. Every boy was to collect a seed from the palace and the boy who grew the best plant would succeed. They all collected their seeds and went home. Each boy prepared his pot and planted his seed and began watering. Soon there was much talk about leaves and shoots appearing and who was managing to grow the biggest plant.
Shaun had taken great care of his seed and how he had planted it. But nothing was growing.
On the day when all the pots were to be brought to the palace, his was still empty.  His mother told him to take his pot as it was and show it to the king. On the way to the palace, he saw so many beautiful plants and he had nothing. He wondered why he was bothering to go.

As they all stood before the king, he wandered among them until he came to Shaun. Here is the winner he declared. They all looked amazed. The King then said that to be a king you had to be honest and upright. All of the seeds that had been given out had been heated in an oven and so none of them could have grown. 

All the others had obviously planted other seeds while Shaun had been honest about his. Be true to yourself





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