Akbar Birbal Stories

Why is the Camel's Neck Crooked?

As you all know, Emperor Akbar was very impressed with Birbal?s wisdom and greatly enjoyed his quick wit. One fine morning when Akbar was especially pleased with Birbal, as a gesture of appreciation, he promised to reward him with many valuable and beautiful gifts.
However, many days passed, and still there was no sign of even one gift. Birbal was quite disappointed with the king. Then one day, when Akbar was strolling down the banks of River Yamuna with his ever faithful Birbal at his side, he happened to notice a camel passing by. He asked Birbal why the neck of the camel was crooked. Birbal thought for a second and promptly replied that it might be because the camel may have forgotten to honour a promise. The holy books mention that those who break their word get punished with a crooked neck; perhaps that was the reason for the camel?s crooked neck.
Akbar soon realised his folly of making a promise to Birbal for gifts and not honouring it.  He was ashamed of himself. As soon as they returned to the palace he immediately gave Birbal his justly deserved reward. As you can see, Birbal always managed to get what he wanted without directly asking for it.

Re-Union

One day, when Akbar and Birbal were in discussions, Birbal happened to pass a harmless comment about Akbar's sense of humour.  But Emperor Akbar was in a foul mood and took great offense to this remark. He asked Birbal, his court-jester, friend and confidant, to not only leave the palace but also to leave the walls of the city of Agra.  Birbal was terribly hurt at being banished. 
A couple of days later, Akbar began to miss his best friend.  He regretted his earlier decision of banishing him from the courts. He just could not do without Birbal and so sent out a search party to look for him. But Birbal had left town without letting anybody know of his destination.  The soldiers searched high and low but were unable to find him anywhere. 
Then one day a wise saint came to visit the palace accompanied by two of his disciples.  The disciples claimed that their teacher was the wisest man to walk the earth.  Since Akbar was missing Birbal terribly he thought it would be a good idea to have a wise man that could keep him company. But he decided that he would first test the holy man's wisdom.
The saint had bright sparkling eyes, a thick beard and long hair. The next day, when they came to visit the court Akbar informed the holy man that since he was the wisest man on earth, he would like to test him. All his ministers would put forward a question and if his answers were satisfactory he would be made a minister. But if he could not, then he would be beheaded. The saint answered that he had never claimed to be the wisest man on earth, even though other people seemed to think so. Nor was he eager to display his cleverness but as he enjoyed answering questions, he was ready for the test.
One of the ministers, Raja Todarmal, began the round of questioning. He asked "Who is a man's best friend on earth?"  To which the wise saint replied, "His own good sense". Next Faizi asked which was the most superior thing on earth? "Knowledge", answered the saint. "Which is the deepest trench in the world?", asked Abdul Fazal. And the saint's answer was "a woman's heart". "What is that which cannot be regained after it is lost?" questioned another courtier and the reply he received was 'life'. "What is undying in music" asked the court musician Tansen. The wise saint replied that it was the "notes". And then he asked "which is the sweetest and most melodious voice at night -time? And the answer he received was "the voice that prays to God." 
Maharaj Mansingh of Jaipur, who was a guest at the palace asked, "what travels more speedily than the wind?" the saint replied that it was "man's thought". He then asked, "which was the sweetest thing on earth?" and the saint said that it was "a baby's smile". 
Emperor Akbar and all his courtiers were very impressed with his answers, but wanted to test the saint himself. Firstly he asked what were the necessary requirements to rule over a kingdom, for which he was answered 'cleverness'. Then he asked what was the gravest enemy of a king. The saint replied that it was 'selfishness'.  The emperor was pleased and offered the saint a seat of honour and asked him whether he could perform any miracles. The saint said that he could manifest any person the king wished to meet. Akbar was thrilled and immediately asked to meet his minister and best friend Birbal. 
The saint simply pulled off his artificial beard and hair much to the surprise of the other courtiers. Akbar was stunned and could not believe his eyes. He stepped down to embrace the saint because he was none other than Birbal.
Akbar had tears in his eyes as he told Birbal that he had suspected it to be him and had therefore asked him whether he could perform miracles. He showered Birbal with many valuable gifts to show him how happy he was at his return. 

Who Are Donkeys?

One fine day, Akbar, accompanied by his two sons and his clever Minister Birbal, went to the river to take a bath.
They asked Birbal to hold their clothes while they were bathing and took off their clothes and stepped into the river.
Birbal stood at the bank of the river, waiting for them, with their clothes on his shoulder. Looking at Birbal standing like this, Akbar felt like teasing him and remarked that Birbal looked like a washerman's donkey with a load of clothes.
Birbal quickly retorted that he was carrying the load of not just one donkey, but actually three.
The emperor was speechless.

Honest Birbal

One fine day, Emperor Akbar was discussing the brinjal with Birbal. He told him what a delicious and nutritious vegetable it was. Much to Akbar's surprise, Birbal thoroughly agreed with him and even sang two songs in praise of the humble brinjal.
After a couple of days, the royal chef cooked brinjal curry for lunch. Birbal was also eating at the palace that day. When the brinjal curry was served to Akbar, he refused it saying that it was a tasteless, stale vegetable, full of seeds and lacking proper nutrition. He then asked that it be served to Birbal who loved brinjals.
But Birbal, too, refused it saying that it was not good for health. So Akbar impatiently asked him why he was saying such things when he sang the brinjals praise, not a few days ago.
Birbal replied that he had praised the brinjal only because his emperor had praised it and criticized it when his majesty had criticized it, as he was loyal to his emperor and to not the brinjal. He said that the brinjal could not make him a minister no matter how much he praised it. He went on to say that he was his majesty's obedient servant, and not that of the brinjal.
The emperor was pleased by his honest, bold, and witty response.

Akbar's Dream

One night, Emperor Akbar dreamt that he had lost all his teeth, except one. The next morning he invited all the astrologers of his kingdom to interpret this dream.
After a long discussion, the astrologers prophesized that all his relatives would die before him.
Akbar was very upset by this interpretation and so sent away all the astrologers without any reward.
Later that day, Birbal  entered the court. Akbar related his dream and asked him to interpret it. After thinking for a while Birbal replied that the Emperor would live a longer & more fulfilled life than any of his relatives.
Akbar was pleased with Birbal's explanation and rewarded him handsomely

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 it without wiping out the ends.

Birbal drew a longer line below the line drawn by Akbar and remarked that though he had not rubbed off the original line he had definitely succeeded in making it shorter.
 

The Cock And The Hen

Since Birbal always outwitted Akbar, Akbar thought of a plan to make Birbal look like a fool. He gave one egg to each of his ministers before Birbal reached the court one morning.
So when Birbal arrived, the king narrated a dream he had had the previous night saying that he would be able to judge the honesty of his ministers if they were able to bring back an egg from the royal garden pond.
So, Akbar asked all his courtiers to go to the pond, one at a time and return with an egg. So, one by one, all his ministers went to the pond and returned with the egg which he had previously given them.
Then it was Birbal's turn. He jumped into the pond and could find no eggs. He finally realized that the King was trying to play a trick on him. So he entered the court crowing like a cock.
The Emperor asked him to stop making that irritating noise and then asked him for the egg.
Birbal smiled and replied that only hens lay eggs, and as he was a cock, he could not produce an egg.
Everyone laughed loudly and the King realized that Birbal could never be easily fooled
 

How many Crows in the Kingdom

One day Emperor Akbar and Birbal were taking a walk in the palace gardens.  It was a nice summer morning and there were plenty of crows happily playing around the pond.  While watching the crows, a question came into Akbar's head.  He wondered how many crows were there in his kingdom. 
Since Birbal was accompanying him, he asked Birbal this question.  After a moment's thought, Birbal replied, "There are ninety-five thousand four hundred and sixty-three crows in the Kingdom". 
Amazed by his quick response, Akbar tried to test him again, "What if there are more crows than you answered?"  Without hesitating Birbal replied, "If there are more crows than my answer, then some crows are visiting from other neighboring kingdoms".   "And what if there are less crows", Akbar asked.  "Then some crows from our kingdom have gone on holidays to other places".

Pandit Sevaram

One day a Brahmin by the name of Sevaram asked Birbal for help. He said that his forefathers were great Sanskrit scholars and that people used to respectfully refer to them as Panditji. He said that he had no money nor need for wealth, he was content living a simple life.  But he had just one wish. He wished people would refer to him as Panditji too. He asked Birbal how he could achieve this.
Birbal said that the task was fairly simple. If the Brahmin followed his advice word for word, this task could be achieved. Birbal advised the Brahmin to shout at anyone who would call him Panditji from now on.
Now the children who lived on the same street as the Brahmin did not like him since he scolded them often. They were just waiting for an opportunity to get back at him. Birbal told the children that the Brahmin would get really irritated if they would start calling him Panditji. The children started calling him Panditji and the Brahmin as advised by Birbal started shouting at them. The children spread the word to all the other children in the neighborhood that Sevaram hated being called Panditji, so they in turn all started calling him Panditji. After a while, Sevaram got tired of scolding them but everyone already was used to calling him Panditji. Hence the game was over but the name stuck.