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

The Well Dispute Once there was a complaint at King Akbar's court. There were two neighbours who shared their garden. In that garden, there was a well that was possessed by Iqbal khan. His neighbour, 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 i ... read more

Birbal The Wise Man In the town of Agra there lived a rich businessman. But he was also quite a miser. Various people used to flock outside his house everyday hoping for some kind of generosity, but they always had to return home disappointed. He used to ward them off with false promises and then never live up to his word. Then one day, a poet named Raidas arrived at his house and said that he wanted to read out his poems to the rich man. As the rich man was very fond of poetry, he welcomed him in with open arms. Raidas started to recite all his poems one by one. The rich man was very pl ... read more

Birbal's Generosity One day a man stopped Birbal in a street and began narrating his woes to him. He said finally - "I have walked 20 miles to see you, and all along the way people kept saying that you are the most generous man in the country." Birbal knew that the man is going to ask some money from him. He asked - "Are you going back the same way?" The man replied - "Yes Sir." Birbal said - "Will you do me a favor?" The man said "Certainly, why not? What do you want me to do?" Birbal said - "Please deny the rumor of my generosity all the way back to your home." And Birbal walked awa ... 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