There lived a king in a certain village. He was terribly ill, almost at the point of death. He had just one daughter, she could not take over the throne but her husband to be could. The king then said a man who is truthful will be the one to marry his daughter. The chief steward asked, ” Oh King! How can that be possible? Seeing everyone will tell you the truth since you are the king?”. “I will put the men to test,” the king replied.
On that very day, the king called the five men who were participating in the competition and gave each of them three seeds of corn. He told them he gave them three months to come back with it’s yields, so they went their way.
About seven days later, the men complained of the same issue, their seeds had not sprung out, they were tensed. In a bid to win, they decided to change their seeds except the fifth man. They dug out the old seeds and replaced them with new ones.
Their seeds grew up so well that they began teasing the fifth man that he had already lost. He told them that he was not going to change the seeds the king had given him.
Three months passed, four of them went to the king, presenting their yields. The king asked of the fifth one, they said his seed did not produce so he didn’t bother coming. The king sent his servant to fetch him, he was so ashamed to come, clothed himself in the clothing of a looser, carrying the face of a failure and a disgrace to the kingdom, so when he arrived the king said; ‘ this is the right one fit for the throne”. And the whole place shook with a trembling surprise bursting forth on each faces, all were astound, whisperers whispering ” how can this be, how can others with large produce be rejected just like that, the one with nothing accepted, this is impossible!”.
The king, reading their minds said, “I had tricked you people by giving you boiled corn to plant, which cannot grow, how did you happen to make your corn germinate?”, They felt dejected, they had lied and lost.
The fifth man embraced by the king, the people of the kingdom sang songs of his name with timbrels and guitars even horns and great fan fares.
And finally married the king’s daughter and was crowned the new king.
Moral: Despite all odds, it pays to be truthful.
