Akbar's Ring Once Akbar went for hunting, and there his ring fell in a dry well. Now how to take that ring out. They did not have any means to take it out. Then Birbal said, "Huzoor, if you give me some time I can take your ring out of this well. Akbar had no alternative, so he permitted him. Birbal went around and brought some fresh cow dung and threw it on the ring. He then tied a stone on one end of a string, and holding the other end in his hand threw the stone on the cow dung. He waited for a long time - for the cow dung to be dried, and then pulled the string out of the well. The s ... read more

The Foolish Brahmin Once upon a time a foolish brahmin came to visit Birbal with a strange request. He wanted to be addressed as ‘pandit’. Now, the term ‘pandit’ refers to a man of learning. But unfortunately this poor brahmin was uneducated. Birbal tried to explain the difference to him saying that it was not correct to call an uneducated man a pandit and because of this very reason it would be improper to call him so. But the silly brahmin had his heart set on this title. So, as usual, Birbal had a brilliant idea. He said that as the brahmin was an uneducated man he should hurl abuse ... read more

Akbar once put a question to his court that left everyone puzzled. As they all tried to figure out the answer, Birbal walked and asked what the matter was. And so they told him the question. ‘How many crows are there in the city?’ Birbal immediately smiled, went up to Akbar and announced that the answer to his questions was twenty-one thousand five hundred and twenty-three. When asked how he knew the answer, Birbal replied, ‘Ask your men to count the number of crows. If there are more, then the crows’ relatives from outside the city are visiting them. If there are fewer, then the crows a ... read more

How Akbar meet Birbal? Akbar loved hunting and used to escape to go for hunting even from his studies. Well, later he became a better rider and hunter than any one of his courtiers. One day when Akbar went for hunting, he and his some of the courtiers went so fast that they left the others behind. As the evening fell, everybody got very hungry and thirsty, they found that they had lost their way and now did not know where to go. At last they came to a junction of three roads. King was very happy to see the roads that now he could go reach his capital through one of these roads, but which ... read more

Heavy Burden Once a woman came to Birbal for his help. She said that the King wanted to construct some building on the land where her house was. She did not want to leave that place because that place belonged to her ancestors. Birbal assured her that she should be patient and he would try his best not to construct any building there. Construction began. Now, one day, Birbal came to that site with King Akbar for inspection. He saw many gunny bags lying near the pile of mud. Birbal started filling the gunny bags with that mud. "Why are you doing this, Birbal?" asked the King. Birbal repli ... read more