One day, a prince of a certain kingdom in ancient China announced that he was going to choose a bride. He called all the interested maidens to present themselves to him at the palace.

Among the many noble ladies and princesses gathered in the hall that day, there stood the old palace gardener's daughter who had held a secret love for the prince ever since they played together in the garden as children. Her white dress still had some dirt stains that she tried in vain to remove. Her bare feet stood in stark contrast with the glittering shoes of the other ladies. Murmurs, whispers and mocking eyes followed the girl wherever she walked.

But then the prince appeared in the doorway and all eyes riveted on him.

He gave the gathered crowd a brief smile, then said, "I am giving each of you a single flower seed which you have to plant and nurture until it grows into full bloom. In six months time, I want to see you back here with your plants. The one I will choose for my bride will be the one with the most beautiful flower."

And with that, he left the servants to give one seed each to the maidens.

The gardener's daughter quickly went home and planted the seed in one of her father's old pots. She mustered all she had learned about proper gardening and the bedridden old man even gave her a few tips and reminders on what to do.

She waited a few days for a sign that the plant was growing. How she longed for the first leaf to pop out of the soil prepared with care and love. But the days stretched into weeks and still nothing grew. Unwilling to accept defeat, she asked for other insights from the other palace gardeners. She thought of ways to make the plant grow until she got frequent headaches every day just from thinking.

The weeks stretched into a month, two months, three, four, five, six.

Nothing grew from the little pot.

And the girl, now desolate and in despair, finally gathered her will and resolved to go to the palace with her flowerless pot, if only to see her heart's true love one more time.

In the palace, she sat in a corner with her head down. Tears slowly trickled from her eyes as she held her arms tightly around the earthen pot.

All around her were ladies in their fine-woven, colored silk dresses. They held ornate and intricate vases that spouted beautiful flowers. It was an astonishing sight to behold, flowers of all shapes, sizes, colors and scents were packed in that small room, all awaiting the prince's judgement and decision as to which was the loveliest.

A servant entered the room and began moving among the ladies, who barely noticed him. He briefly took note of what each held in her hand until his eyes rested on the gardener's daughter sitting in the corner with her pot held against her chest.

He quickly moved to her and tapped her shoulder. "Come with me," he said.

The poor girl opened her eyes in surprise and when she saw the servant's serious mien, thought that she had made a big mistake coming here with her empty pot, dirty clothes and tear-stricken face. How dare she come without anything to show for her effort! How dare she mar the prince's big day as she stood out like an ugly blot among all these fine women!

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand as she scrambled to her feet. The servant led her to the door when suddenly, another servant rushed in and announced the arrival of the prince.

The room fell into a hushed silence as he appeared. He glanced briefly around the room and his eyes met those of the servant who held the arm of the gardener's daughter.

He walked towards the pair, then took the girl's cold and trembling hand in his own.

"Behold my bride," he announced to the stunned crowd.

The momentary silence was broken by shrieks and screams of complaint.

"But she has nothing in her pot!"

The prince raised his hand to command silence and restore order.

"Six months ago, I gave each of you a seed and told you to come back with the best and most beautiful flower. I see today that you all have such wondrous, wild and exotic flowers perhaps never before seen in the kingdom. But this lady here has shown me a flower that none of you can match. That flower is the flower of truth and honesty. All the seeds I gave you before had been boiled and rendered sterile. Surely, nothing, not even a weed, could have grown from them."