A number of years ago, my sweet mother-in-law gave us a copy of a wonderful book called The Empty Pot. The story is told of an emporer who gives a seed to each young boy in his kingdom. He tells the boys, that there is a very special prize for whoever can grow the most beautiful flower from the seed he is given.
Ping, one of the boys, plants his seed, waters it, fertilizes it, gives it plenty of sun, but no matter what he does, his flower doesn't grow. He is very tempted to find another seed, a different one and use it instead, but that is against the rules. He is humiliated and embarrased when he has to present his pot to the emporer and it is empty. All of the other boys have pots filled with beautiful flowers in them.
In the end, the emporer awards the grandest prize to Ping, because, he explains, all of the seeds he gave to the boys were cooked and unable to grow. The only honest young boys in the kingdom was Ping. The seeds could not have grown into beautiful flowers, they were dead seeds. Ping had been the only honest one, although tempted to break the rule to use another seed, he humbly told the emporer that he had failed. Yet he was the only boy to pass the test of honesty and the prize was awarded to him, the emporer's entire kingdom. You see, he was getting old and was looking for someone he could trust his kingdom to.
This book talks about temptation, honesty, humility, trust and so much more. It's a great book to read and then discuss all of these character traits with a group of children!!!
A Lesson Plan to go with the book is found at the following website called "Teach with Picture Books". http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/empty-pot.html
