“A long time ago, the king of Pratapgarh, India, had no children. The king decided that he would choose a child from his kingdom as his successor. With this intention, one day all the children were called. The king announced that he would choose one of the children present there as his successor.
After that he distributed a small bag among all the children…. and said,
“Dear children, the bag given to all of you contains seeds of different plants. Each child has been given only one seed…you have to take it home and plant it in a pot. After 6 months we will gather here again and at that time I will decide who will be the next ruler of Pratapgarh after me
Among those boys, there was a boy named Dhruv. Like the other children, he too happily took the seeds and returned home.
With his mother’s help, he selected a pot and took good care of it.
Days started passing, but even after a week or two, there was no trace of the plant in Dhruv’s pot.
At the same time, crops were now visible in the pots of some of the nearby children.
Dhruv thought that maybe his seed was different… and after a few days something came out of it.
And thinking so, he continued to take care of the pot with full dedication. But even after three months, his pot was empty.
On the other hand, the plants in the pots of the other children had grown well. In some, even flowers and fruits had started appearing.
Seeing Dhruv’s empty pot, everyone made fun of him… and laughed at him… even some elders stopped him from working hard in vain.
But despite this Dhruv did not give up and continued to take care of the pot.
Six months passed by and the day came for him to take his pot to the king.
Dhruv was worried because he had still not found anything in the pot. He started thinking in his mind-
If I go to the king like this, everyone will laugh at me… and if the king gets angry with me and punishes me… no one will believe that I used to water the seeds every day… everyone will think I am so lazy!
Mother understood Dhruv’s problem, she looked straight into his eyes and said-
“Whatever the outcome, you must return the seed to the king!”
On the appointed day, all the children gathered in the palace grounds. There were many plants, one after the other…the entire palace was fragrant with the aroma of colorful flowers.
Seeing Dhruv’s empty pot, the other children were making fun of him when suddenly the arrival of the king was announced.
All the children stood quietly in their places…only one question was going on in everyone’s mind…that
Who will become the king?
The king started moving forward through the children…wherever he passed the children stood up straight and tried to prove themselves as worthy successors.
After seeing all the beautiful plants, the king’s eyes fell on Dhruv.
“What happened? Why is your pot empty?”, the king asked.
“Yes, I used to water it every day… exposed it to sunlight… I took good care of it for 6 months but still no plant grew out of it…”, Dhruv said with some hesitation.
The king proceeded to see the rest of the pots and after seeing all the pots he addressed the children-
“You guys worked really hard to prove yourself… Most people want to become king at any cost, but there is a boy who came here empty handed… Dhruv, you come here to me…”
Dhruv felt a bit strange being called like this in front of everyone.
He slowly started moving forward.
As soon as the king picked up his pot and showed it to the other children…everyone started laughing.
“Calm down!” said the king in a loud voice, “
6 months ago I gave you seeds and asked you to come with your plants. The seeds I gave you were barren… no matter how much you looked after them, nothing came out of them… but it is sad that among all of you, only Dhruv has come here empty handed.
You all should learn from him…first he showed honesty that unlike other people, even though the seed did not yield anything, he did not plant another seed…and then he showed courage to come here with an empty pot…knowing how much people would laugh at him…how much humiliation he would have to face!
I declare that Dhruv will be the next king of Pratapgarh. This is the reward for his honesty!”