A king had three sons. As he was getting old, he wanted to hand over his throne to the most capable son among the three.

One day he called the three princes for the purpose of testing their abilities and gave each of them a seed and said, “Sons! I want all three of you to plant these seeds in a pot and take good care of them for one year. After one year all three of you should be present in front of me with your pots. Seeing what you bring with you, I will decide who among you will take care of the kingdom after me.”

The three princes took those seeds from the king and went to the royal garden, choosing a pot each for themselves and sowing their seeds. From that day onwards, they started taking care of the seeds by going to the royal garden every day.

After completion of one year, the king called his sons again. All three reached the king with their respective pots. While both the elder princes were happy, the youngest prince was sad.

Both the elder princes proudly showed the plants grown by them to the king. But the little prince showed the empty pot to the king and said, “Father! I watered the seed throughout the year. Took good care of it. But it did not germinate at all.”

The king looked at the three pots and said, “Now the time has come for me to tell you to whom I am going to hand over this kingdom.” Both the elder princes started looking at the king excitedly. But the little prince lowered his gaze. He knew that seeing the empty pot, the king would not make him his successor. The next moment the king announced, “I hand over the reins of this kingdom to the little prince.”

Hearing this, both the elder princes said, “Father! How can you do this? We have appeared with the plants grown from the seeds you have given and the little prince’s pot is empty. Still, instead of choosing us, you chose him as your successor. This is injustice.”

The king smiled and said, “Sons! One year back when I had given the seeds to all three of you, I did not tell you that those seeds were boiled. It was not possible for plants to grow from those seeds. I don’t need to tell you how you both made the impossible possible. The plants in the pots brought by you are not actually from the seeds that I had given you. You both are liars. The little prince is truthful and honest. That’s why he is eligible to be my successor.”

In this way, following the path of truth and honesty, the younger prince became the king and both the older princes kept repenting.

Moral of the Story: Always be truthful and honest.