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 o ... read more

List of blinds Once King Akbar questioned Birbal if he knows the number of blind citizens of their kingdom. Birbal had requested Akbar to give him a week’s time. The next day 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 da ... read more

Hot Iron Test One day, one man wanted to punish a man named Hasan. He accused him of stealing his necklace, and reported this theft in the police. The case was brought in the Judge's court. Judge knew Hasan very well, and he also knew that he was not a thief. So he asked the man, "Why do you think that Hasan has stolen your necklace?" The man replied, "Your Honor, I have seen him stealing the necklace." Hasan said, "I am innocent, Your Honor. I do not know anything about his necklace." The man then said, "All right, if he is innocent, let him prove his innocence. let me bring the hot ... read more

Whose Bag? Once it so happened that there was an oil merchant. When the villagers came to buy oil from him he gave them the oil and collected money from them. One day he and a villager come to the court, both fighting for a bag of money. Each claimed that the bag belonged to him. The merchant said that it was his bag, when he turned to give the customer his oil, he pulled the bag from him and started fighting. The villager said it was his bag, when he was looking at some other things he placed it in front of the merchant and the merchant started to claim it. Everybody in the court was ... read more

Washerman's Donkey Once Akbar went to the river with his two sons and wise Minister Birbal. On the bank of the river, Akbar and his two sons took off their clothes and asked Birbal to take care of them while they took bath in the river. Birbal was waiting for them to come out of the river. All the clothes were on his shoulder. Looking at Birbal standing like this, Akbar felt like teasing him, so he said to him, "Birbal, you look like as if you are carrying a washerman's donkey load." Birbal quickly retorted, "Sir, Washer-man's donkey carries only one donkey's load, I am carrying three ... read more