Akbar-Birbal - The Wisdom Fruit

We all want to be wise. Here's a story from Akbar-Birbal about a king who tried a shortcut to wisdom. 

Emperor Akbar's court was in session when a messenger arrived from the neighbouring country with a message for the Emperor. The message was as puzzling as it was it simple.

"To Emperor Akbar,

We have been informed that your court is a treasure trove of wisdom. As your neighbour we would like you to share your wisdom with us. Please send one Fruit of Wisdom to us, so that we can grow our own from the sample.

Inability to send us a Fruit of Wisdom from your side will be regarded as an act of hostility and will be reciprocated in kind from our side."

"Fruit of Wisdom?", the Emperor was perplexed, "Who starts these rumours?"

Nobody had an answer to that. It was learnt later that the neighbour king had heard the legend of Birbal's wit and had concocted this plan in his jealousy to show up Birbal or find an excuse to attack Akbar's kingdom.

After a period of idle speculation and fruitless (no pun intended) discussion, all eyes finally turned to Birbal who was sitting silently.

"Birbal", Akbar asked, "You are the only one who has not offered any comments on this situation. Do you have an answer to give to this messenger?"

Birbal said, "Yes, Your Majesty.", he turned to the messenger, "Tell your king that we are all out of Fruits of Wisdom at the moment and it will take 6 weeks to grow a fresh one. Once the Fruit is ready, you can come and collect it. In 6 weeks' time."

The messenger departed without further comment and as soon as he was out of earshot, Akbar could contain his puzzlement no longer.

"Birbal, have you gone mad? Grow what? In 6 weeks? There is NO such thing as a Fruit of Wisdom. Why did you tell him 6 weeks. What will we give him when the messenger comes back in 6 weeks?"

Birbal smiled his knowing smile that used to drive the Empror insane because he could not guess what he was thinking, "Your Majesty, please leave this small matter in my hands. When the messenger returns in 6 weeks he will be given the Fruit of Wisdom and rest assured that it will satisfy our neighbour king."

Next morning, Birbal sowed some seeds of pumpkin in his garden at home. He kept a careful eye on their progress every day. When the Emperor asked him in court about the matter of the Fruit, he would reply complacently, "The Fruit is being grown, Your Majesty!"

When the pumpkins were 2 weeks old, Birbal covered 2 of them with earthen pitchers (ghade) and made supports for them so that they would still get sunlight while growing completely inside the ghade.

When the pumpkins grew big enough that they filled the earthen pitchers completely without breaking them, Birbal plucked them off.

Two days later the messenger arrived as expected. When he walked into the Emperor's court and demanded delivery of the Fruit of Wisdom, Birbal stood up and handed him the earthen pitchers filled with the fully grown pumpkins.

He addressed the messenger, "In view of our cordial relations with your kingdom we have prepared two Fruits of Wisdom instead of one to be delivered to your king. But please tell the king that special care must be taken when extracting the Fruits. If you cut the Fruit with a knife or break the special container, the Fruit will be entirely spoilt."

The messenger looked at Birbal's face, then looked at the Fruits of Wisdom and retreated in silence.

Moral of the story: Your mind is a wonderful tool, the only way to sharpen it is to use it.

Akbar Birbal - Finding The Right Balance

Once it happened that Birbal and Akbar exchanged some hot words and Birbal took off in anger.

After a few days the Emperor cooled down and realized that he had treated Birbal unjustly. Also he was missing Birbal's scintillating wit and his intelligence in solving the daily issues in the court.

But even though the emperor was ready to call Birbal back the problem was that Birbal had left no forwarding address. He had simply disappeared. Also, Akbar didn't want to have to apologize to Birbal even though he wanted him back.

Having lived in Birbal's company for so long, the Emperor had also gained some craftiness. He devised a plan that would find Birbal without having to make an announcement that would give away Akbar's eagerness to have Birbal back.

Soon, all the district Sarpanch's in the kingdom received a goat from the Emperor. With the goat was a message - the goat was the property of Emperor Akbar and was being entrusted to the district for safekeeping for a month. The goat must be well taken care of and returned at the end of the month. The most important thing was that the goat must not gain any weight during the month nor should it lose any weight.

Sarpanch after sarpanch watched as the messengers from the Royal Court weighed a got in front of him and told him that it should be the same weight 30 days later, within a reasonable limit.

And once the messengers were gone, the Sarpanch invariably scratched his head. The message from the Royal Court was as baffling as it was clear. The whole thing sounded like a riddle.

Even though a huge crowd collected on each site to watch the sight of a goat being put in a balance, no citizen had any ideas to keep the goat's weight constant.

I am sure some smartasses would have suggested sending it to a slimming clinic had such been invented back then.

Some villages tried smart methods like feeding the goat for fifteen days and then not feeding at all for the remaining fortnight and other variations. Invariably the goat either died or lost weight. In some cases the goat actually gained weight.

On the 30th day, there was only one goat that weight almost exactly the same as a month ago. The Emperor was extremely interested in that goat. He found out which district the goat had been sent to and went there immediately.

On questioning from the Supreme Ruler himself, the Sarpanch gave up the secret - "Sire, we fed the goat very well, as the rations were kindly provided by the Zille-ilahi, but after a day's feeding the goat was then taken away and tied in front of the tiger's cage for the night."

Akbar smiled at the clever solution. Fear of the tiger would counteract all the goat's feeding without starving it. It was ingenious! Then the Emperor asked the million-dollar question - "Who told you this solution?"

The Sarpanch gave the name of the wise villager who had saved the Sarpanch from going crazy with the insoluble puzzle and in a short amount of time Birbal was standing in front of Akbar accepting Akbar's weak apologies with a tolerant smile.

Moral of the story: A full stomach does not equal happiness if the heart is not free of fear. 

Akbar-Birbal - Words Can Kill

A well-known astrologer and palm-reader came to Agra and such was his fame that the Emperor Akbar himself called him to his court.

The palmist looked at Akbar's hand and looked serious. Then he told the Emperor, "Maharaj, you will suffer the separation of all your family members and relatives, they will all die in front of your eyes."

This, understandably, made the emperor very angry. He ordered the Pandit to be put in jail.

As usual, the refuge of the downtrodden, besaharon ka sahara, was Birbal. The Pandit asked to see Birbal in prison and when he came he poured his troubles into his sympathetic ear.

Birbal understood the problem. He whispered a plan into the Pandit's ear.

The next morning, the Pandit sent a request to see the Emperor one more time, saying he suspected he had made a mistake and must be given a chance to confirm or refute his earlier prediction.

Akbar welcomed this opportunity to rid himself of the dark shadow of this Pandit's ominous prediction and called the Pandit to his court.

This time, after carefully examining the powerful ruler's hand, the Pandit looked up and delivered his address thus, "Your Majesty, I did indeed make a big mistake. Your palm is in fact the palm of an extremely fortunate and privileged man. You are such a kind and just emperor that even the Gods want you to continue to rule this country for decades to come! I can clearly see it in your hand that you will have a long and healthy life. You will live so long that none in your friends, family or relatives will be able to equal that! You will have the longest life of all of them! May the Gods bless Your Majesty with years and years of happiness in your long, unsurpassed life!"

The Emperor was happy to hear the "true and correct" prediction and rewarded the Pandit handsomely.

Moral of the story?  When it's your head on the line, choose your words carefully!

Akbar-Birbal: The Harbinger of Bad Luck

AH's latest post, reminded me of an Akbar Birbal story.


A poor worker who used to work in Emperor Akbar's palace had the misfortune to be considered unlucky. He was one-eyed and according to a superstition it was very bad luck to see his face first thing in the morning. The legend went that you would not get food all day if you saw his face in the morning.

One day, when the Emperor woke up early and strolled out to his palace balcony. This one-eyed servant, let's call him Sirju, was doing some chores there and the Emperor happened to look at him. That made Akbar groan with disgust as he knew that his day would be ruined now.

Later that day, while coming down the steps of his court, the Emperor suddenly slipped and sprained his ankle. More than the pain, the Emperor felt anger because he blamed the servant, (what did we name him?, yes, Sirju), for his injury.

From his sickbed, Akbar ordered that Sirju be arrested and beheaded at sundown. When some courtiers tried to protest, the Emperor shot them down. Nobody was willing to risk their own lives for the well-known harbinger of bad luck.

As usually happens in these stories, Birbal was the last resort of the poor and the downtrodden for justice. Sirju's wife went to Birbal, crying and begging for mercy for her husband. Birbal promised to try and help him.

A little while before the beheading was to be conducted, Birbal went to see the Emperor and asked if he thought his harsh decision regarding Sirju was just. Despite Birbal's well-reasoned argument in favour of forgiveness and mercy, the Emperor refused to budge from his position.

He said, "Birbal, We (this is the royal WE)  are doing a service to all the citizen's of Agra by eliminating this constant bad luck that plagues them every day. If you see his face in the morning, you have to go hungry for the day..nobody should have to live in such fear."

Birbal replied calmly, "I believe you are right, Your Majesy! But consider this, this morning you saw his face and you sprained your ankle. But the poor wretch happened to gaze upon the Majesty's glourious countenance...and he's losing his life! Who would you say is more unlucky for this fellow humans?"

[Daily soap music and 3-shot close-up zoom shots as Akbar's head jerks up and he stares at Birbal in disbelif!]

Then, of course, the Emperor freed the poor man, and gave him some gold coins so that he'd not file a defamation case against him. ;)

Moral of the story? Never go to see an Emperor before he has had his morning coffee.