Birbal Stories # 30 - What the drop Taketh

The anecdotes of Emperor Akbar and his trusted aide Birbal are entertaining as well as enlightening. Once, the Emperor received the gift of a rare perfume. As he opened the bottle, a drop of perfume fell to the floor. Akbar instinctively moved to retrieve it by wiping the floor with his finger. As he looked up he noticed a bemused look on Birbal’s face… his eyes seemed to mock the Emperor for being scrounging.

To change Birbal’s perception, Akbar summoned him the next morning to his bath. He asked his attendants to fill up the bathtub with the best of perfumes. Akbar sought to show Birbal that as Emperor he could afford to waste as much perfume, as he wanted. Birbal when asked to react said the immortal lines, “Boond se jati, woh haudh se nahi aati” (An entire tub full cannot retrieve what the drop took way!)

Birbal sought to tell the Emperor that his earlier instinctive action (that exhibited miserliness) could not be undone by an intentional action (aimed at big-heartedness). Our character is determined by our reactions, not by forced posturing. It is better to be transparent then wear favourable masks. In fact every little action and reaction, every spoken word and emerging thought reflects our true self!

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 29 - Pundit's Mother Tongue

Once Akbar’s court was visited by an eminent Pundit who was well versed in many languages. He challenged everybody in the Court that he could answer any question in any languages. No doubt he used to answer queries in whichever language he was asked. Nobody could guess his true mother tongue.

He once said to Emperor Akbar that by tomorrow your courtier’s should tell me which is my mother tongue and if they failed to do so, I assume that I am superior than all your courtiers.

Everyone in the court thought it to be an easy job and pleaded their inability to judge his mother tongue. But everyone failed now Akbar turned to Birbal to solve this problem. Birbal accepted the challenge and asked for some time till the next morning. Time was granted & the durbar (social gathering) was dismissed.

That night Birbal went to Pundit's house and entered his bedroom. When the Pundit was fast asleep Birbal tickled his ear with hay (dry Grass). 

The Pundit’s sleep was disturbed, he turned to the other side and slept, again Birbal tickled his other ear. Now Pundit's sleep was disturbed he woke up and loudly said “Yevvurura Adi” (Who is that?) and seeing no one he went back to sleep. Birbal came out of his house unnoticed.

The next morning, the court assembled, and the Pundit was also invited. Pundit again started in different languages, finally Birbal said that ‘TELUGU’ is the mother tongue of the Pundit. The Pundit was very much surprised at Birbal's answer and he accepted the defeat and left the court.

Akbar asked Birbal, how he found out the true mother tongue. Birbal said that a man in distress will talk in his mother tongue whenever he is disturbed in sleep and then narrated the happening of the previous night. Akbar praised Birbal for his timely Wisdom. 

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 28 - Heavy Burden

Once a distraught old woman came to Birbal for help. The emperor had decided to build a palace on her property. She didn’t want to leave the place as it had been her ancestral property. Birbal assured her and said that he’d do his best.

The construction began. When Birbal visited the site with Akbar, he saw many gunny bags lying next to a pile of mud. He began to fill the bags with mud.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Akbar. “To earn merit in my next life, Huzoor,” replied Birbal.  

Amused, Akbar too joined Birbal. Afterwards Birbal requested Akbar to help him lift one of the sacks.

“Aaah, this is very heavy!” said Akbar, staggering under the weight of a bag. “Your Majesty,” said Birbal, “A bag of mud is so heavy. Imagine how much mud there must be in this piece of land. Will it not weigh heavily on your conscience to destroy somebody ancestral property?”

Akbar realized his mistake and gave orders to discontinue the construction.

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 27 - List of Blinds

Once King Akbar questioned Birbal if he knows the number of blind citizens of their kingdom.

Raja Birbal had requested Akbar to give him a week’s time.

The next day Raja Birbal was found to be mending shoes in the town market. People were astonished to see Birbal doing such work. Many of them started to question "Birbal!! What are you doing?"

Once when he was asked this question by someone he started writing something. It continued for a week when on the 7th day King Akbar himself asked Birbal the same question.

Giving him no answer, Birbal reported at the court the next day and handed over a note to King Akbar. Akbar read the note when he found that it was the big list of people who were blind.

Emperor Akbar was stunned when he found his own name in the list. Angered by this, Akbar asked Birbal the reason for writing his name in the list.

Birbal said "O! My majesty! Like all other people you also saw me mending the slippers but you still asked me what I was doing. Therefore I had to include your name too."

Akbar started laughing at this and everyone enjoyed Birbal's sense of humor. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 26 - Birbal shortens Road

The Emperor Akbar was traveling to a distant place along with some of his courtiers. It was a hot day and the emperor was tiring of the journey.

“Can’t anybody shorten this road for me?” he asked, querulously.

“I can,” said Birbal.

The other courtiers looked at one another, perplexed. All of them knew there was no other path through the hilly terrain.

The road they were traveling on was the only one that could take them to their destination.

“You can shorten the road?” said the emperor. “Well, do it.”

“I will,” said Birbal. “Listen first to this story I have to tell.”

And riding beside the emperor’s palanquin, he launched upon a long and intriguing tale that held Akbar and all those listening, spellbound. Before they knew it, they had reached the end of their journey.

“We’ve reached?” exclaimed Akbar. “So soon!”

“Well,” grinned Birbal, “you did say you wanted the road to be shortened.” 

 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 25 - Birbal returns Home

Birbal was in Persia at the invitation of the king of that country.

Parties were given in his honor and rich presents were heaped on him.

On the eve of his departure for home, a nobleman asked him how he would compare the king of Persia to his own king.

“Your king is a full moon,” said Birbal. “Whereas mine could be likened to the quarter moon.”

The Persians were very happy. But when Birbal got home he found that Emperor Akbar was furious with him.

“How could you belittle your own king!” demanded Akbar. “You are a traitor!”

“No, Your Majesty,” said Birbal. “I did not belittle you. The full moon diminishes and disappears whereas the quarter moon grows from strength to strength. What I, in fact, proclaimed to the world is that your power is growing from day to day whereas that of the king of Persia is about to go into decline.”

Akbar grunted in satisfaction and welcomed Birbal back with a warm embrace. 

 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 24 - The Sadhu

Akbar came to the throne when he was only thirteen years old. In the years that followed, he built on of the greatest empires of his time. He lived in unimaginable splendor. He was surrounded by courtiers who agreed with every word he said, who flattered him and treated him as if he were a god. Perhaps it was not surprising that Emperor Akbar was sometimes arrogant and behaved as if the whole world belonged to him.

One day, Birbal decided to make the great emperor stop and think about life.

That evening as the emperor was going towards his palace, he noticed a Sadhu lying in the centre of his garden. He could not believe his eyes. A strange Sadhu, in ragged clothes, right in the middle of the palace garden? The guards would have to be punished for this, thought the emperor furiously as he walked over to that Sadhu and prodded him with the tip of his embroidered slipper.

"Here, fellow!" he cried. "What are you doing here? Get up and go away at once!"

That Sadhu opened his eyes. Then he sat up slowly. "Huzoor," he said in a sleepy voice. "Is this your garden, then?"

"Yes!" cried the Emperor. "This garden those rose bushes, the fountain beyond that, the courtyard, the palace, this fort, this empire, it all belongs to me!"

Slowly that Sadhu stood up. "And the river, Huzoor? And the city? And this country?"

"Yes, yes, it's all mine", said the emperor. "Now get out!"

"Ah", said the Sadhu. "And before you, Huzoor. Who did the garden and fort and city belong to then?"

"My father, of course", said the emperor. In spite of his irritation, he was beginning to get interested in the Sadhu's questions. He loved philosophical discussions and he could tell, from his manner of speaking, that the Sadhu was a learned man.

"And who was here before him?" the Sadhu asked quietly.

"His father, my father's father, as you know."

"Ah", said the Sadhu. So this garden, those rose bushes, the palace and the fort all this has only belonged to you for your lifetime. Before that they belonged to your father, am I right? And after yours time they will belong to your son, and then to his son?

"Yes", said the Emperor Akbar wonderingly.

"So each one stays here for a time and then goes on his ways?"

"Yes."

"Like a dharmashala?" the Sadhu asked. "No one owns a dharmashala. Or the shade of a tree on the side of a road. We stop and rest for a while and then go on. And someone has always been there before us and someone will always come after we have gone. Is that not so?"

"It is", Emperor Akbar quietly.

"So your garden, your palace, your fort, your empire... these are only places you will stay in for a time, for the span of your lifetime. When you die, they will no longer belong to you. You will go, leaving them in the possession of someone else, just as your father did and his father before him."

Emperor Akbar nodded. "The whole world is a dharmashala", he said slowly, thinking very hard. "In which we mortals rest awhile. That's what you are telling me, isn't it? Nothing on this earth can ever belong to a single person, because each person is only passing through the earth and must die one day?"

The Sadhu nodded solemnly. Then, bowing to the ground, he removed his white beard and saffron turban and his voice changed. "Jahanpanah, forgive me!" he said, in his normal voice. "It was my way of asking you to think about..."

"Birbal, oh, Birbal!" the emperor exclaimed. "You are wiser than any philosopher. Come, come at once to the royal chamber and let us discuss this further. Even emperors are but wayfarers on the path of life, it is clear!" 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 23 - Birbal turns Tables

Emperor Akbar was narrating a dream.

The dream began with Akbar and Birbal walking towards each other on a moonless night. It was so dark that they could not see each other and they collided and fell.

"Fortunately for me," said the Emperor. "I fell into a pool of payasam. But guess what Birbal fell into?"

"What, your Majesty?" asked the courtiers.

"A gutter!"

The court resounded with laughter. The emperor was thrilled that for once he had been able to score over Birbal.

But Birbal was unperturbed.

"Your Majesty," he said when the laughter had died down. "Strangely, I too had the same dream. But unlike you I slept on till the end. When you climbed out of that pool of delicious payasam and I, out of that stinking gutter we found that there was no water with which to clean ourselves and so guess what we did?”

"What?" asked the emperor, warily.

"We licked each other clean!"

The emperor became red with embarrassment and resolved never to try to get the better of Birbal again. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 22 - Birbal is Brief

One day Akbar asked his courtiers if they could tell him the difference between truth and falsehood in three words or less.

The courtiers looked at one another in bewilderment.

"What about you, Birbal?" asked the emperor. "I'm surprised that you too are silent."

"I'm silent because I want to give others a chance to speak," said Birbal.

"Nobody else has the answer," said the emperor. "So go ahead and tell me what the difference between truth and falsehood is — in three words or less."

"Four fingers" said Birbal

"Four fingers?" asked the emperor, perplexed.

"That's the difference between truth and falsehood, your Majesty," said Birbal. "That which you see with your own eyes is the truth. That which you have only heard about might not be true. More often than not, it's likely to be false."

"That is right," said Akbar. "But what did you mean by saying the difference is four fingers?'

"The distance between one's eyes and one's ears is the width of four fingers, Your Majesty," said Birbal, grinning. 

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 21 - Birbal the Wise

Ram and Sham both claimed ownership of the same mango tree.

One day they approached Birbal and asked him to settle the dispute.

Birbal said to them: "There is only one way to settle the matter. Pluck all the fruits on the tree and divide them equally between the two of you. Then cut down the tree and divide the wood".

Ram thought it was a fair judgment and said so.

But Sham was horrified.

"Your Honor" he said to Birbal "I've tended that tree for seven years. I'd rather let Ram have it than see it cut down."

"Your concern for the tree has told me all I wanted to know" said Birbal, and declared Sham the true owner of the tree. 

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 20 - Cooking the Khichdi

It was winter. The ponds were all frozen.

At the court, Akbar asked Birbal, "Tell me Birbal! Will a man do anything for money?" Birbal replied, 'Yes'.

The emperor ordered him to prove it.

The next day Birbal came to the court along with a poor Brahmin who merely had a penny left with him. His family was starving.

Birbal told the king that the Brahmin was ready to do anything for the sake of money.

The king ordered the Brahmin to be inside the frozen pond all through the night without any attire if he needed money.

The poor Brahmin had no choice. The whole night he was inside the pond, shivering. He returned to the durbar the next day to receive his reward.

The king asked "Tell me Oh poor Brahmin! How could you withstand the extreme temperature all through the night?"

The innocent Brahmin replied "I could see a faintly glowing light a kilometer away and I withstood with that ray of light."

Akbar refused to pay the Brahmin his reward saying that he had got warmth from the light and withstood the cold and that was cheating.

The poor Brahmin could not argue with him and so returned disappointed and bare-handed.

Birbal tried to explain to the king but the king was in no mood to listen to him.

Thereafter, Birbal stopped coming to the durbar and sent a messenger to the king saying that he would come to the court only after cooking his khichdi.

As Birbal did not turn up even after 5 days, the king himself went to Birbal's house to see what he was doing. Birbal had lit the fire and kept the pot of uncooked khichdi one meter away from it.

Akbar questioned him "How will the khichdi get cooked with the fire one meter away? What is wrong with you Birbal?"

Birbal, cooking the khichdi, replied "Oh my great King of Hindustan! When it was possible for a person to receive warmth from a light that was a kilometer away, then it is possible for this khichdi, which is just a meter away from the source of heat, to get cooked."

Akbar understood his mistake. He called the poor Brahmin and rewarded him 2000 gold coins. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 19 - Birbal the Child

Birbal arrived late for a function and the emperor was displeased.

"My child was crying and I had to placate him," explained the courtier.

"Does it take so long to calm down a child?" asked the emperor. "It appears you know nothing about child rearing. Now you pretend to be a child and I shall act as your father and I will show you how you should have dealt with your child. Go on. Ask me for whatever he asked of you."

"I want a cow," said Birbal.

Akbar ordered a cow to be brought to the palace.

"I want its milk. I want its milk," said Birbal, imitating the voice of a small child.

"Milk the cow and give to him," said Akbar to his servants.

The cow was milked and the milk was offered to Birbal. He drank a little and then handed the bowl back to Akbar.

"Now put the rest of it back into the cow, put it back, put in back, put it back..." wailed Birbal.

The emperor was flabbergasted and quietly left the room. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 18 - The Sharpest Shield and Sword

A man who made spears and shields once came to Akbar's court.

"Your Majesty, nobody can make shields and spears to equal mine," he said. "My shields are so strong that nothing can pierce them and my spears are so sharp that there's nothing they cannot pierce."

"I can prove you wrong on one count certainly," said Birbal suddenly.

"Impossible!" declared the man.

"Hold up one of your shields and I will pierce it with one of your spears," said Birbal with a smile. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 17 - The True King

The King of Iran had heard that Birbal was one of the wisest men in the East and desirous of meeting him sent him an invitation to visit his country.

In due course, Birbal arrived in Iran.

When he entered the palace he was flabbergasted to find not one but six kings seated there.

All looked alike. All were dressed in kingly robes. Who was the real king?

The very next moment he got his answer. Confidently, he approached the king and bowed to him.

"But how did you identify me?" the king asked, puzzled.

Birbal smiled and explained: "The false kings were all looking at you, while you yourself looked straight ahead. Even in regal robes, the common people will always look to their king for support."

Overjoyed, the king embraced Birbal and showered him with gifts. 

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 16 - The Well Dispute

Once there was a complaint at King Akbar's court.

There were two neighbors who shared their garden. In that garden, there was a well that was possessed by Iqbal Khan. His neighbor, who was a farmer wanted to buy the well for irrigation purpose. Therefore they signed an agreement between them, after which the farmer owned the well.

Even after selling the well to the farmer, Iqbal continued to fetch water from the well. Angered by this, the farmer had come to get justice from King Akbar.

King Akbar asked Iqbal the reason for fetching water from the well even after selling it to the farmer.

Iqbal replied that he had sold only the well to the farmer but not the water inside it.

King Akbar wanted Birbal who was present in the court listening to the problem to solve the dispute.

Birbal came forward and gave a solution. He said " Iqbal, You say that you have sold only the well to the farmer. And you claim that the water is yours. Then how come you can keep your water inside another person's well without paying rent?"

Iqbal's trickery was countered thus in a tricky way. The farmer got justice and Birbal was fairly rewarded.

 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 15 - The Choice of Birbal

One day Emperor Akbar asked Birbal what he would choose if he were given a choice between justice and a gold coin.

“The gold coin,” said Birbal.

Akbar was taken aback.

“You would prefer a gold coin to justice?” he asked, incredulously.

“Yes,” said Birbal.

The other courtiers were amazed by Birbal’s display of idiocy.

For years they had been trying to discredit Birbal in the emperor’s eyes but without success and now the man had gone and done it himself!

They could not believe their good fortune.

“I would have been dismayed if even the lowliest of my servants had said this,” continued the emperor. “But coming from you it’s . . . it’s shocking - and sad. I did not know you were so debased!”

“One asks for what one does not have, Your Majesty!” said Birbal, quietly. “You have seen to it that in our country justice is available to everybody. So as justice is already available to me and as I’m always short of money I said I would choose the gold coin.”

The emperor was so pleased with Birbal’s reply that he gave him not one but a thousand gold coins. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 14 - Just One Question

One Day a scholar came to the court of Emperor Akbar and challenged Birbal to answer his questions and thus prove that he was as clever as people said he was.

He asked Birbal: "Would you prefer to answer a hundred easy questions or just a single difficult one?"

Both the emperor and Birbal had had a difficult day and were impatient to leave.

"Ask me one difficult question," sad Birbal.

"Well, then, tell me," said the man, "which came first into the world, the chicken or the egg?"

"The chicken," replied Birbal.

"How do you know?" asked the scholar, a note of triumph in his voice.

"We had agreed you would ask only one question and you have already asked it" said Birbal and he and the emperor walked away leaving the scholar gaping. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 13 - The Musical Genius

Famous musicians once gathered at Akbar's court for a competition.

The one who could capture a bull's interest was to be declared the winner.

One by one, they played the most heavenly music but the bull paid no attention.

Then Birbal took the stage. His music sounded like the droning of mosquitoes and the mooing of cows.

But to everyone's amazement the bull suddenly became alert and began to move in a lively manner.

Akbar declared Birbal the winner. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 12 - Painting by Birbal

Once Akbar told Birbal 'Birbal, make me a painting. Use imagination in it.

To which the reply was 'But hoozoor, I am a minister, how can I possibly paint?’

The king was angry and said 'If I don’t get a good painting by one week then you shall be hanged!’

The clever Birbal had an idea.

After one week, he went to the court and with him he carried a covered frame.

Akbar was happy to see that Birbal had obeyed him, until he opened the cover. The courtiers rushed to see what was wrong. What they saw made them feel very happy.

At last, they would not see Birbal in court! The painting was nothing but ground and sky. There were a few specs of green on the ground.

The Emperor, angrily, told Birbal 'what is this?' To which the reply was 'A cow eating grass hoozoor!’

Akbar asked 'where is the cow and grass?' and Birbal told 'I used my imagination. The cow ate the grass and returned to its shed!' 

 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 11 - Birbal denies Rumour

One day a man stopped Birbal in the street and began narrating his woes to him. 

"I've walked twenty miles to see you," he told Birbal finally, "and all along the way people kept saying you were the most generous man in the country."
 
Birbal knew the man was going to ask him for money.
 
"Are you going back the same way?" he asked.
 
"Yes," said the man.
 
"Will you do me a favor?"
 
"Certainly," said the man. "What do you want me to do?"
 
"Please deny the rumor of my generosity," said Birbal, walking away. 

Cheers! 

Birbal Stories # 10 - The Noblest Begger

One day the Emperor asked Birbal, "Birbal, is it possible to be the both "noblest" and the "lowest" together?" Birbal said, "Yes, Jahaanpanaah"  "Then bring me such a person."

Birbal went and returned next day with a beggar and presenting him to Akbar said, "This is the lowest among all of your subjects, Jehanpanah" Akbar asked, "Good, that may be true, but I don't see that how he can be the noblest?"

"He has been given the honor of having an audience with the Emperor, that makes him the noblest among the beggars, Jahaapanaah."

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 9 - Beautiful Explanation

One day the Emperor Akbar saw a woman hugging and kissing a very dark, ugly and unattractive child. He was very surprised to see that. He thought and thought but could not think why? 

He asked Birbal that why she was doing that to such an unattractive child. Birbal replied innocently, "Huzoor, he must have been her own child. For every mother her own child is the most beautiful child in the world."

The Emperor did not seem to be convinced with this explanation, and Birbal had guessed this from the Emperor's face.  

Next day, in the presence of the Emperor, Birbal ordered a Guard to present the most beautiful child in the world in the court. Next day, the Guard brought a more unattractive and ugly child with buck teeth and his hair stood like a porcupine and presented to the Emperor. "This is the most beautiful child in the world, Your majesty." the Guard stammered.

The Emperor asked, "How do you know that he is the most beautiful child in the world?" "Your Majesty, I went home and posed my problem to my wife. She told me to bring our child to the court." the Guard replied meekly.

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 8 - Caught the Thief

It so happened that once a rich merchant's house was robbed. The merchant suspected that the thief was one of his servants. So he went to Birbal and mentioned the incident. Birbal went to his house and assembled all of his servants and asked that who stole the merchant's things. 

Everybody denied.

Birbal thought for a moment, then gave a stick of equal length to all the servants of the merchant and said to them that the stick of the real thief will be longer by two inches tomorrow. All the servants should be present here again tomorrow with heir sticks.

All the servants went to their homes and gathered again at the same place the next day. Birbal asked them to show him their sticks. One of the servants had his stick shorter by two inches. 

Birbal said, "This is your thief, merchant."

Later the merchant asked Birbal, "How did you catch him?" Birbal said, "The thief had already cut his stick short by two inches in the night fearing that his stick will be longer by two inches by morning."

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 7 - How many crows in the Kingdom?

Being Emperor Akbar’s favorite minister, Birbal used to solve many of his problems.

One day Emperor Akbar and Birbal were taking a walk in the palace gardens. It was a nice summer morning and there were plenty of crows happily playing around . Akbar   was enjoying seeing so many crows playing.

Suddenly, while watching the crows, a question came into Akbar’s head.  He wondered how many crows were there in his kingdom.

Since Birbal was accompanying him, he asked Birbal this question.  Birbal looked at the crows and after a moment’s thought, Birbal replied, “There are ninety-five thousand four hundred and sixty-three crows in the Kingdom”.

Amazed by his quick response, Akbar tried to test him again, “What if there are more crows than you answered?” 

Without hesitating Birbal replied, “If there are more crows than my answer, then some crows are visiting from other neighboring kingdoms”.  

“And what if there are less crows”, Akbar asked.   “Then some crows from our kingdom have gone on holidays to other places”. Akbar was very much impressed at this intelligent answer from Birbal.

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 6 - Identifies Guest

Once Birbal was invited to a lunch by a rich man. Birbal went to the man's house and found himself in a hall full of people. His host greeted him warmly. "I did not know there would be so many guests," said Birbal who hated large gatherings.

"They are not guests," said the man. "They are my employees, all except one man. He is the only other guest here beside you."

"Can you tell me which of them is my other guest?" he asked.  "Maybe I could," said Birbal, "Tell them a joke or something and I will observe them."

The man told a joke that Birbal thought was perhaps the worst he had heard in a long time. When he finished everyone laughed uproariously.
 

"Well," said the rich man. "I've told my joke. Now tell me who my other guest is."

Birbal pointed out the man to him. "How did you know?" asked his host, amazed. "Employees tend to laugh at any joke told by their employers," explained Birbal.

"When I saw that this man was the only one not laughing at your joke, and in fact, looked positively bored, I at once knew he was your other guest."

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 5 - Birbal solves the problem

Several courtiers were vying for the post of royal advisor. The emperor told them that he would put them to the test and the one who passed the test would be appointed as the royal advisor.

Akbar then unfastened his waist cloth (Cloak) and lay on the floor. He then challenged the courtiers to cover him from head to toe with the cloak.

One by one the courtiers tried, but their attempts proved futile. If the head was covered, the feet remained exposed. Some even tried pulling and tugging at the coak but in vain.

Just then Birbal entered. The emperor asked Birbal if he could do it. Birbal took the cloak and then looked at the emperor lying on the floor.

“Jahanpannah, would you kindly draw up your knees?” he said. The emperor drew up his knees. Birbal then threw the cloak over him and it covered him from head to toe.
 

The courtiers, realizing that they had failed the test, quietly filed out of the room.

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 4 - Question for a Question

One day Akbar said to Birbal: "Can you tell me how many bangles your wife wears?"  

Birbal said he could not.

"You cannot?" exclaimed Akbar. "You see her hands every day while she serves you food. Yet you do not know how many bangles she has on her hands? How is that?"

"Let us go down to the garden, Your Majesty," said Birbal, "and I'll tell you."

They went down the small staircase that led to the garden. Then Birbal turned to the emperor: "Your Majesty," he said, "You go up and down this staircase every day. Can you tell me how many steps there are in that staircase?"

The emperor grinned sheepishly and quickly changed the subject.

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 3 - Hasty Punishment

Once when Akbar was riding near a mango grove, an arrow whizzed past him. His soldiers rushed into the grove and caught hold of the archer, a young man, and brought him before Akbar.

“Why did you try to kill me?” Akbar shouted at the youth. “ Jahanpannah, I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was only trying to knock the mango down with my arrow!” said the youth, who was already very afraid.

The king was too angry to listen to him. “Put him to death in the same manner he tried to kill me,” he ordered to his soldiers.

Receiving the King's orders soldiers tied the youth to a mango tree and another steadied his bow and arrow to shoot him.

“This is not fair!” shouted Birbal who had been watching quietly. “If you want to shoot him the same way he tried to shoot the emperor, you will have to aim at the mango and the arrow will have to miss the mango and then strike him.”

Akbar, who had calmed down by now, realized he had been unfair to the youth and ordered his soldiers to release him. The young man bowed and thanked the king & Birbal .

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 2 - Sweet Reply

One day the Emperor Akbar startled his courtiers with a strange question. "If somebody pulled my mustache what sort of punishment should be given to him?" he asked.

"He should be flogged!" said one courtier.
"He should be hanged!" said another.
"He should be beheaded!" said a third.

"And what about you, Birbal?" asked the emperor. "What do you think would be the right thing thing to do if somebody pulled my mustache?"

"He should be given sweets," said Birbal. "Sweets?" gasped the other couriers.
 
"Yes, said Birbal. "Sweets, because the only one who would dare pull His Majesty's mustache is his grandson."

So pleased was the emperor with the answer that he pulled off his ring and gave it to Birbal as a reward.

Cheers!

Birbal Stories # 1 - Flowers for the Emperor

Emperor Akbar and some of his courtiers were strolling through the royal gardens.

“How beautiful is that flower, Man can never produce anything as beautiful as this?” said the court poet, drawing the emperor’s attention to a flower growing on a bush.“Man can sometimes produce more beautiful things,” said Birbal. “I don’t believe it!” said the emperor. “You are talking nonsense, Birbal!”

A few days later Birbal led a master craftsman of Agra into Akbar’s presence. The man presented the emperor with an exquisite marble carving of a bouquet of flowers.

The emperor rewarded him with a thousand gold coins. Just then a small boy entered and gave Akbar a bunch of roses. Akbar thanked the boy and gave him a silver coin.

“So the carving was more beautiful than the real thing,” said Birbal softly and the emperor realized with a start that once again he had played into the hands of his witty courtier.

Cheers!

Birbal Stories of Wit and Wisdom

There was a Mogul Emperor in India, Akbar the Great (1542-1605). His full name was Jalaludden Mohammed Akbar Padshah Ghazi and he ruled India from 1560 to 1605. He himself was illiterate, but he invited several learned people in his court. Among these people, nine were very famous and were called Nav Ratna (nine jewels of the Mogul Crown) of his court. Among these nine jewels, five people were more famous - Tansen, Todarmal, Abul Fazal, Maan Singh and Birbal.

Birbal (1528-1583) is very popular for his sharp intellect and sense of humour. Birbal's duties in Akbar's court were mostly administrative and military, but he was a very close friend of Akbar  too, because Akbar loved his wisdom, wit and subtle humour. 

Though popularly known as Birbal, his real name was Maheshdas. It is believed that he belonged to a poor Brahmin family of Trivikrampur on the banks of the river Yamuna,  but it was only by virtue of his sharp intellect that he rose to be a minister at the court of Akbar. According to legend,  he died on an expedition to Afghanistan at the head of a large military force due to treachery. It is also said that when Birbal died, Akbar mourned him for several months.

The exchanges between Akbar and Birbal have been recorded in many volumes. The Akbar Birbal Stories are an integral part of rich Indian heritage. These are the most popular stories among all age groups that inculcate moral values and virtues, and forms an indispensable part of Indian folk lore.

I will try to bring selected stories of Birbal in my subsequent postings. Hope you will enjoy them.

Cheers!