Forty-four years ago I heard William J. Critchlow Jr., then president of the South Ogden Stake, speak to the brethren in the general priesthood session of conference, and retell a story concerning trust, honor, and duty.  May I share the story with you?  Its simple lesson applies to us today, as it did then.

“Rupert stood by the side of the road watching an unusual number of people hurry past.  At length he recognized a friend.  ‘Where are all of you going in such a hurry?’ he asked.

“The friend paused.  ‘Haven’t you heard?’ he said.

“‘I’ve heard nothing,’ Rupert answered.

“‘Well,’ continued [the] friend, ‘the King has lost his royal emerald.  Yesterday he attended a wedding of the nobility and wore the emerald on the slender golden chain around his neck.  In some way the emerald became loosened from the chain.  Everyone is searching, for the King has offered a reward…to the one who finds it.  Come, we must hurry.’

“‘But I cannot go without asking Grandmother,’ faltered Rupert.

“‘Then I cannot wait.  I want to find the emerald,’ replied his friend.

“Rupert hurried back to the cabin at the edge of the woods to seek his grandmother’s permission.  ‘If I could find it we could leave this hut with its dampness and buy a piece of land up on the hillside,’ he pleaded with Grandmother.

“But his grandmother shook her head.  ‘What would the sheep do?’ she asked.  ‘Already they are restless in the pen, waiting to be taken to the pasture—and please do not forget to take them to water when the sun shines high in the heavens.’

“Sorrowfully, Rupert took the sheep to the pasture, and at noon he led them to the brook in the woods.  There he sat on a large stone by the stream.  ‘If I could only have had a chance to look for the King’s emerald,’ he thought.  Turning his head to gaze down at the sandy bottom of the brook, suddenly he stared into the water.  What was it?  It could not be!  He leaped into the water, and his gripping fingers held something that was green, with a slender bit of gold chain.  ‘The King’s emerald!’ he shouted.  ‘It must have been flung from the chain when the King [astride his horse, galloped across the bridge spanning the stream, and the current carried] it here.’

“With shining eyes Rupert ran to his grandmother’s hut to tell her of his great find.  ‘Bless you, my boy,’ she said, ‘but you never would have found it if you had not been doing your duty, herding the sheep.’  And Rupert knew that this was the truth.”

As told by Thomas S. Monson in general conference, October 1999,

and repeated in general conference, October 2006.