A very good morning to everyone. Today, I’m going to tell an interesting story entitled, ‘Silkworm’.

Long ago, two kingdoms were at war and the king whose land was under attack was anxious.
The Princess noticed her father’s distress and asked, “Father,” what troubles you so deeply?”

The King was quiet for a while, and he said, “The war goes very badly for us, thousands of
our soldiers are dying on the battlefield. I see no way to save the kingdom.”

To the King’s surprise, the Princess said, “Father, no matter what happens to us, we must
save the kingdom. “I am willing to offer myself for the good of our people. Father, tell your
generals I will marry anyone who will cut off the head of the enemy commander.

“Do you realize what you’re saying?” asked the King. “It is noble and selfless of you to offer
your hand to the man who kills the enemy general, but the man who marries you would also
be successor to my throne!”

“Father, any man brave enough to kill the enemy commander would be a great man. Surely,
he would make a good husband to me and a capable successor to you.”

The King was deeply moved by his daughter’s devotion. “Well,” he said, “Perhaps you are
right’.

The next morning, the King ordered the announcement to be made in all parts of the
kingdom: the Princess would marry anyone who killed the enemy commander and brought
back his head, and this new prince would be the heir to the throne.

At the crack of dawn, all the people in the palace were awakened by the pounding of the
victory drum. The King and the Princess ran out to see what had caused such excitement.

The King heard the loud neighing of a horse from the palace garden.

There stood a white stallion, in his mouth he held the head of the enemy’s high general. A
soldier rushed forward and knelt before the King. “Your Majesty, this horse attacked the
enemy general and tore off his head.

The King embraced the horse, weeping with joy and kept the stallion in its own stable with a
personal attendant.

But the Princess was not satisfied. She said, “Father, I consider the horse to be my husband’.

“What nonsense are you speaking?” said the King. “Don’t concern yourself with the horse.

In a fit of annoyance, he commanded one of his men to put the stallion to death. The princess
pleaded and begged, there came a high-pitched shriek from the garden. The horse was dead.
He ordered his men to skin the horse and hang its hide from a tree in the garden.

Each morning, the Princess would come to the garden and spend the entire day there grieving
for the horse. One day there came a loud scream from the garden. The Princess had wrapped
herself in the horse’s hide, and a powerful wind blew down from the sky and carried the
Princess away.

In the spring, there came word that a decomposed horsehide had been found hanging from a
tree. “Remove this rotten flesh!” he commanded, and he wept for his daughter.

One of the ministers noticed an unusual worm on the inner side of the skin. He said, “Your
Majesty, I believe this might be the spirit of the Princess. Her devotion to the horse has
transformed her into this worm.” you will see that the mouth of the worm resembles the
mouth of a horse. If you look closely, you see that it nibbles at the leaf like a horse chewing
on grass. And the smooth skin of this worm resembles the smooth complexion of our late
Princess.”

The King burst into tears again, “Alas! My daughter! Now you have been reborn a worm.”
He ordered his ministers to bring the worm back to the palace and treat it with the greatest
care.

The worm laid many eggs. They produced a thread that could be spun into the finest and most
luxurious fabric.

It is said, even today, that the silkworm produces the delicate thread from its mouth because it
is the reincarnation of the princess.

So, my dear friends, we must always keep our promises. Breaking the promises can
negatively impact bonds and make others lost trust in us.

Thank you.