Charney fell out of favor with the Emperor. He was thrown into a dark dungeon with no access to visitors.
Lonely and depressed, he
scratched the words "Nobody cares" into the stone wall of his cell.
One day, he noticed a tiny green shoot pushing through a crack in the floor. Curious and needing a purpose, Charney began to save a bit of his daily water to nurture the little plant.
Days passed, and the plant grew, eventually blooming into a beautiful blue flower.
That simple flower changed everything. With the same stone, Charney scratched through his
earlier words and wrote above them: "God cares."
The man in the next cell told his daughter the story during her visits. She shared it with others, and it eventually reached the Emperor's wife.
She said, "A man who so tenderly loves and cares for a flower cannot be a bad man."
She persuaded her husband to free Charney, and it was settled.
When Charney was released, he took the flower home and cared for it the rest of his life—it had taught him to believe in God again.
