Please find me a transcript of the folk tale of a king who gave a
grain of rice or wheat to each of his three daughters, then went away,
and then returned to find that each daughter had done something
different with the grain.  I think one daughter cooked it, another
stored it, and the third planted it to grow a field.  I think the
story suggests that we should emulate the third daughter.

I heard a storyteller tell this story at last fall's Strawberry Music
Festival.  I enjoyed it and now I want to tell it in my Toastmasters
club.  I need to memorize the story in order to tell it, though, which
is why I'm asking for the text.

---

Clarification of Question by limoore-ga on 29 Mar 2006 13:06 PST

The story below is the one I want, but I'm hoping that you can find a
more detailed story that will fill 7-9 minutes.

http://www.wisconsinumc.org/CORR/Session2.html

"""
There is a folk tale from India that helps us understand how
insignificant people (in the eyes of human being) make a significant
difference in the welfare of humanity. There was a king who ruled his
kingdom wisely and who ruled well. He had three daughters. He called
them together and told them he was leaving on a long journey to learn
about God. In his absence, he intended his three daughters to be in
charge of the kingdom. As a sign, he wanted leave each of them with a
gift that would help them learn how to wisely use their power to rule.
Then he placed in each of their hands a single grain of rice. The
first daughter tied a long golden thread around her grain of rice and
put it in a beautiful crystal box. Every day she looked at it and
reminded herself that she was powerful. The second daughter took one
look at the common grain of rice and threw it away. The third daughter
just looked at her grain of rice for a long time, until she finally
understood what to do with it. She went outside and planted it in the
ground. And it became a seed, giving life beyond itself, eventually
turning into vast rice fields of hope and nourishment for others.
            The father returned years later. He asked his three
daughters what they had done with their grains of rice. Obviously, he
was not impressed with the explanations of his first two daughters.
The third daughter did not give explanation but took her father to the
vast fields of grain of rice and showed him how a small grain of rice
could make a life-lasting difference in the kingdom. Taking the crown
off his head, he placed it on hers, saying: "Beloved, you alone have
learned the meaning of power even in a grain of rice." From that day,
the youngest daughter ruled the kingdom. She ruled long and she ruled
wisely and well too.
"""

Dear limoore,

Here are two only slightly different versions of the tale:

Tiggerman.com: The Grain of Rice
http://www.tiggerman.com/story-grainrice.htm

The Light of Truth: The Grain of Rice
http://www.thelightoftruth.com/E/show.asp?id=124&cat=5


A more condensed third version calls it "a folk tale from India"
(scroll down to the "Experience" paragraph):
http://www.wisconsinumc.org/CORR/Session2.html


Hope this is what you were looking for!
Regards,
Scriptor


Search terms used:
king "three daughters" "grain of rice"
://www.google.de/search?q=king+%22three+daughters%22+%22grain+of+rice%22&btnG=Suche&num=20&hl=de&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1
"three daughters" grain
://www.google.de/search?num=20&hl=de&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22three+daughters%22+grain&btnG=Suche&meta=
"the grain of rice" daughters
://www.google.de/search?num=20&hl=de&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22the+grain+of+rice%22+daughters&btnG=Suche&meta=

Hi

the original of this story appears to be a Jain parable from the Sixth Anga

"In the sixth Anga are to be found a series of narratives or parables
spun out to form a more or less lengthy narrative. One of these
parables bears some resemblance to the parable of the talents in the
Christian gospels. Here however, it is the story of a man who has four
daughters-in-law. In order to test them he gives each five grains of
rice. One throws them away thinking to herself that there are plenty
of grains of rice in the larder and that she can easily replace them
with five other grains. The second thinks more or less the same, only
she eats her five grains. The third puts them carefully away in her
jewel box. But the fourth plants them, harvests and replants again and
again for a period of five years when she has accumulated a large
store of rice. On the return of the merchant he punishes the first two
by requiring that they perform the most menial tasks about the house.
To the third he entrusts the guarding of the entire property, but to
the fourth he gives the management of the entire household. These
daughters-in-law represent the monks, some of whom do not keep their
vows at all, others neglect them, the better ones keep them joyfully,
while the best not only keep but propagate them."

from The Scriptures of Mankind: An Introduction by Charles Samuel
Braden, MacMillan, New York, 1952
http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=704&C=948
it states a longer version of the story can be found in
Winternitz, History of Indian Literature, Vol. II (Buddhist literature
and Jaina Literature), pp. 446