Birbal Turns Tables Once Emperor Akbar was narrating his dream in the court. The dream began with Akbar and Birbal walking towards each other on a dark night. It was so dark that they could not see each other, and so collided and fell. The Emperor said - "Fortunately for me, I fell into a sea of Paayzam (an Indian sweets made with milk and semolina), but guess what Birbal fell into?" Courtiers asked curiously - "What, Your Majesty?" "A gutter." The whole court resounded with laughter. The Emperor was thrilled that at least for once he had been able to score over Birbal. But Birbal was ... 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

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

Tit-Bits Emperor Akbar’s court was famous for its witty question and answer sessions. On one of these occasions, the Emperor asked Birbal if there was anything that the sun and the moon could not see. Birbal’s reply was ‘darkness’. Akbar was pleased. Next, he asked what was the difference between a truth and a lie. To which Birbal replied that it was the distance between the ears and the eyes because what you see with your eyes is true, but what you hear with your ears is generally false. Akbar was satisfied. Lastly, Emperor Akbar drew a line on the floor and asked Birbal to shorten ... read more

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