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. ... read more

How Birbal Brought Meat Back in the Community? Akbar was famous for his religious tolerance. (Jodhaa Baaee, a Hindu woman, was his wife, he had married other religion's women also) He would help to all those who wanted help even on religious matters. Once it so happened that a group of Braahman appeared in his court and said - "O Great Emperor, You are the one who allowed us to ask you if we had problems. We have stayed silent for long time, but today we wish to speak up. We do not want any slaughtering of animals, it is against our religion." Hearing this Akbar got in a fix as the me ... read more

Back to Square One As usual a lot of people were present in Akbar's durbar. A famous astrologer had come from a far away country. He was talking about the Solar System and the Earth's shape. At one point Akbar said, "If the earth is round, and if one travel strait towards one direction, he will come back to the same spot from where he has started the journey." "Theoretically it is correct", said the astrologer. "Why not in real life?", asked the king. "One has to cross oceans, mountains and forests to keep the path straight." the astrologer said. "Sail through the oceans, make tunne ... read more

Birbal Identifies 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 their sticks. All the ... read more

Quick Thinking Birbal : Count The Crows One day Akbar was strolling in his palace gardens with his dear minister Birbal. Many crows were flying around. The King enjoyed their flying. Just then he thought, that how many crows could be in his kingdom and immediately posed this question to Birbal. Birbal thought a moment, then said, "They are ninety-five thousand, four hundred and sixty three (95, 463) crows in your kingdom, Huzoor." "How do you know that for sure?" the King asked. "You can get them counted, Huzoor." Birbal said., The king again said, "If there will be less than that, th ... read more