Yesha Desai

Once, Emperor Akbar was looking for a suitable candidate for the post of his royal advisor. Several courtiers coveted the prestigious post and requested the Emperor to give them a chance. The number of the contenders for the post was increasing day by day and thus, the Emperor decided to test them for their intellectual abilities and wit. He announced, “I want all those who wish to be my royal advisor to appear for a test. The one who would pass the test will be appointed my advisor.” They agreed.Akbar unfastened his waist cloth and lay down on the floor, and asked the candidates to cover him with that cloth from head to toe. All the courtiers were perplexed by the Emperor’s strange test. They tried their best to cover the Emperor’s body with the waist cloth, but since it was very small in size, it could not cover the whole body. When the courtiers covered the Emperor’s head, his feet remained uncovered, and when they tried to cover his feet, then his head remained open.Just then Birbal entered the court, the king asked Birbal also to try to cover him with that cloth from head to toe. Birbal took a moment, and then asked the Emperor politely, “Huzoor, Could you pull up your knees a little bit?” The Emperor curled his legs up, and Birbal easily covered him from head to toe with that cloth.All the courtiers realized that they were not worth the appointment of the royal advisor and withdrew their claims.

This is a classic story from Akbar Birbal.

Birbal solves the problem

Once, a rich man invited Birbal for lunch at his place. When Birbal reached the rich man’s house, he saw that the main hall was full of many other people also. When the rich man saw Birbal at his door, he welcomed him warmly and ushered him inside the house. Birbal said, “My dear man, it seems to me that you have invited almost half of the city today.” The rich man politely replied, “Sir, they are not my guests, they are my employees. There is only one other guest here, besides you. Is it possible for you to identify who that other guest is?”Birbal smiled and said, “Well, I will certainly give it a shot. Tell them a joke! I will have a glance at all of them and then give you your answer.” The rich man told a lame joke and everybody laughed hysterically. It was the worst joke that Birbal had ever heard in his life. Now,The rich man asked Birbal, “I have told the joke, now you tell me who is the other guest here?” Birbal pointed out towards a man and said, “He is that other guest!” The rich man was very surprised hearing this as the man towards whom Birbal had pointed was indeed the other guest. He said to Birbal, “Dear Sir, you are absolutely right, but how did you recognize him?”Birbal said, “It was simple! Pardon me for saying so, but only your employees could have laughed on the pathetic joke that you had cracked. This man was the only person who did not even smile at your joke, and this helped me to recognize him as the other guest.” Moral:People who are indebted to you are more likely to indulge you.

Birbal identifies the guest

One day, When the Mullah Do-Piyaza was going back after having an audience with the Emperor, a small copper coin fell down from his pocket. It was the only money he had at that time so he started immediately searching for it. A courtier named Murad, who was one of his bitterest enemies at court, said, “Your Majesty, look at the Mullah! Did you see what a miserly he is? You have given him so many expensive gifts and bestowed plenty of money on him; still he is after a copper coin.”The Mullah said quickly, “My dear friend is highly mistaken, Jahanpanah! It is not because of the value of the coin, that I am looking for it. I am looking for it because one side of that coin bears your resemblance, and I don’t want people to inadvertently step on it.”Akbar was so pleased to hear Mullah’s reply that he took off his diamond ring and presented it to the Mullah Do-Piyaza. Moral:Flattery can get you far.

Mullah’s flattering answer

One day, Emperor Akbar and his courtiers had to go to Azabgarh for a meeting. Since it was the peak of summer, they started early in the morning. Azabgarh was situated far away from Akbar’s capital. Akbar was sweating profusely sitting in his palanquin under the scorching heat of the sun. He was exhausted and wanted to shorten the journey somehow.After some time, the Emperor gave up and said, “I am really very tired of this journey. I cannot bear to sit in the palanquin any more. Is there someone who can shorten this road for me?”All the other courtiers were dumbfounded as there was no shortcut to reach Azabgarh and they could not possibly shorten the road.At that moment Birbal replied, “Yes, Alampanah! I can!”The Emperor was happy and relieved to hear Birbal’s reply.“Alright then do it”, Akbar said.“Definitely sir, but you have to listen to a story,” Birbal said.The Emperor gladly agreed and Birbal began his story. He rode beside the King’s palanquin and started telling a very engaging story. The Emperor and the courtiers found the story very interesting. They were listening to each and every sentence of Birbal carefully. Finally, when Birbal finished the story, the Emperor and the courtiers realised that they had reached Azabgarh.“We have reached!”exclaimed the Emperor with excitement.To this, Birbal replied “Yes we have sir, you asked me to shorten the path for you, so I did it. You were so engrossed in the story that you did not come to know when you reached your destination.”Akbar was very pleased with Birbal’s way of entertaining him and showered expensive gifts on him. Moral:Distraction can shorten the time.

This is a classic story from Akbar Birbal.Moral(s) of the story: wisdom

Birbal shortens the journey

One day, Emperor Akbar saw a woman hugging and kissing a very dark, ugly and unattractive child. Though the child was obnoxious to look at, the woman was calling him the most attractive child in the world. This surprised the Emperor and he said to Birbal, “Birbal, I wonder how could a woman shower her love on such an unattractive child.” Birbal replied politely, “Huzoor, he must have been the woman’s own child. For every mother, her own child is the most beautiful child in the world.”Birbal could easily make out from the Emperor’s face that he was not convinced with his reply. Next day, when the royal court met, Birbal ordered a guard to find and bring the most beautiful child in the world to the court next morning.Next day, the guard brought one unattractive and ugly child with projecting teeth and unkempt hair and presented him before the court. “This is the most beautiful child in the world, Your Majesty,” said the guard.The Emperor asked, “How do you know that he is the most beautiful child in the world?” “Your Majesty, I went home and shared my problem with my wife. According to her, our child is the most beautiful child in the world and hence, I brought him to the court,” the guard replied meekly. Moral:Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Birbal’s beautiful explanation

Once, Akbar asked Birbal to find four fools in his kingdom and being them to him. Birbal was amused at the Emperor’s wish and said, “Jahanpanah, it is not a difficult task as this world is full of foolish people. All I need is a few days.” Akbar readily granted Birbal’s request and gave him a few days' time to look out for the fools in his kingdom.Having taken permission from the Emperor, Birbal started looking for the fools. One day, he saw a man carrying a large plate full of clothes, sweets and other expensive gift items. Out of curiosity, Birbal asked the man, “My dear man, for whom are you carrying so many costly gifts?”The man replied, “These gifts are for my wife! She has left me and married someone else and now she has just been blessed with a baby boy. So, I have bought all these gifts for her.”When Birbal heard the man’s reply, he thought of him as the ideal candidate to present before the Emperor. Birbal asked him to appear in the royal court whenever he called him.Soon after, Birbal saw another man who was clumsily sitting on a buffalo and carrying a bundle of grass over his head.Birbal asked him, “Why are you carrying this bundle over your head?”The man replied, “Sir, my buffalo is pregnant. Don’t you think it would be cruel on my part to load this heavy bundle of grass on her at this time? I care about her very much and that is why I am carrying the bundle of this grass over my head.”Birbal could not help smiling and asked the second man also to appear in the royal court at a given time.Next morning, Birbal called both the men to court and presented them to Akbar as the biggest fools in the kingdom. Akbar asked, “But these are only two fools. I had directed you to bring four fools to me. Where are the other two?”Birbal folded his hands and said, “I beg your pardon , Alampanah, the third fool is none other than you, who asked me to bring these fools to you and the fourth fool is me, who has brought these fools to you.”The Emperor burst out laughing at Birbal’s humorous reply and commended him for his ready wit. Moral:There is no lack of fools in this world

This is a classic story from Akbar Birbal.Moral(s) of the story: foolishness

Four fools

Ravina Sewani

It so happened that once, Emperor Akbar misplaced his ring somewhere. When Birbal arrived in the court, Akbar told him, “I have lost my ring. It was very dear to me as my father had given it to me as a gift. Please help me find it!”Birbal said, “You need not worry, Jahanpanah! I will find your ring right away.”He further added, “Your Majesty, the ring is here in this court itself. It is with one of our courtiers. The courtier who has a straw in his beard has your ring.” The courtier who had filched the Emperor’s ring was shocked and immediately moved his hand over his beard. Birbal was waiting for this reaction from one of the courtiers. He immediately pointed towards that particular courtier and ordered the royal guards to search him. The guards frisked the courtier and found the Emperor’s ring lying in the pocket of his achkan.Akbar was pleasantly surprised at another wonderful example of Birbal’s wit and asked him “Birbal, tell me how were you able to find the culprit?” Birbal then told the Emperor, “Your Majesty, I just shot an arrow in the dark. As they rightly say that a guilty person is always scared, the real culprit revealed himself by moving his hand over his beard.” Moral:A guilty mind is always scared. The courtier was so scared of getting caught that it was revealed in his actions and gave away his crime. Birbal used his presence of mind and wit and caught the guilty person at once.

This is a story of Akbar Birbal and ring.Moral(s) of the story: alertness, smartness and wisdom

Akbar’s ring

Once, a man sold his well to a farmer in return for some money. Next day, when the farmer went to draw the water from that well, the man forbade him to draw the water from it. He said, “I have sold you just the well, not the water, which is why you cannot draw the water from the well.”The farmer felt cheated and appealed for justice in the Emperor’s court. He narrated the entire incident to the Emperor and demanded the man to be taken to task for being dishonest with him.The Emperor called Birbal and handed over this case to him. Birbal summoned the other man also in the court.When the man presented himself before the court, Birbal asked him, “Why don’t you let him use the water of the well? You have sold the well to the farmer.” The cunning man replied, “Respected Sir, I have sold the just the well to the farmer, not the water. And thus, he has no right to draw the water from the well.”Birbal smiled and said, “Very well! But, since you have sold the well to this farmer, you have no right to keep your water in the farmer’s well. You must either pay rent to the farmer to keep your water in his well, or you take your water out of his well immediately. You must keep the thing that belongs to you with yourself. Am I right?”The cunning man realized that it was not possible for him to cheat the farmer anymore. He apologized to him for his trickery and withdrew his claim over the water of the well. Moral:Trickery and cunningness will always someday be discovered and outwitted.

Birbal helps the farmer

Once, somebody informed Emperor Akbar that a certain astrologer in the city was bragging about his accurate predictions everywhere. Akbar summoned the astrologer to his court and thought of testing the accuracy of his predictions. When the astrologer presented himself in the durbar, he said, “I have heard that you predict very accurately.” The astrologer was filled with great fear and awe as he was standing in front of the mightiest of the kings. Not even a single word could come out of his mouth and he kept standing with folded hands. Akbar asked, “O’ Learned astrologer, you shall be handsomely rewarded if you are able to answer just a simple question of mine. Tell me, when will you die?”The astrologer was shaking with fear and did not know what to say. He thought for a moment and then said that he will have to consult his charts to predict correctly. The Emperor gave him one hour’s time to do so. Instead of consulting his charts, the astrologer went running to Birbal for help and described the whole thing. Birbal thought of a brilliant answer and told the astrologer what to say in front of the Emperor.The astrologer returned to the court and told the king, “I will die three days before you, Jahanpanah!” Akbar could make out that the astrologer was bluffing, but did not want to take a chance. Like every other human being, he did not want to know the time of his death, so he let him go. Thus the astrologer was able to save his life with the help of clever Birbal. That day onwards, he never bragged about anything. Moral:Being talented is a boon and we must not brag about it.

This is a classic story from Akbar and Birbal.Moral(s) of the story: pride

akbar birbal stories

Kids moral stories help in improving their imagination & relate to real-world life. Here are age-specific bedtime stories for children by renowned storytellers.