Akbar - Birbal stories

Noble Beggar, List of blinds and Just One Question

Noble Beggar

One day the Emperor asked Birbal, "Birbal, is it possible to be the both "noblest" and the "lowest" together?" Birbal said, "Yes, Jahaanpanaah" "Then bring me such a person."

Birbal went and returned next day with a beggar and presenting him to Akbar said, "This is the lowest among all of your subjects, Jehanpanah" Akbar asked, "Good, that may be true, but I don't see that how he can be the noblest?"

"He has been given the honor of having an audience with the Emperor, that makes him the noblest among the beggars, Jahaapanaah."

List of blinds

Once King Akbar questioned Birbal if he knows the number of blind citizens of their kingdom.

Birbal had requested Akbar to give him a week’s time.

The next day Birbal was found to be mending shoes in the town market. People were astonished to see Birbal doing such work. Many of them started to question "Birbal!! What are you doing?"

Once when he was asked this question by someone he started writing something. It continued for a week when on the 7th day King Akbar himself asked Birbal the same question.

Giving him no answer, Birbal reported at the court the next day and handed over a note to King Akbar. Akbar read the note when he found that it was the big list of people who were blind.

Emperor Akbar was stunned when he found his own name in the list. Angered by this, Akbar asked Birbal the reason for writing his name in the list.

Birbal said "O! My majesty! Like all other people you also saw me mending the slippers but you still asked me what I was doing. Therefore I had to include your name too."

Akbar started laughing at this and everyone enjoyed Birbal's sense of humor.

Just One Question

One Day a scholar came to the court of Emperor Akbar and challenged Birbal to answer his questions and thus prove that he was as clever as people said he was.

He asked Birbal: "Would you prefer to answer a hundred easy questions or just a single difficult one?"

Both the emperor and Birbal had had a difficult day and were impatient to leave.

"Ask me one difficult question," sad Birbal.

"Well, then, tell me," said the man, "which came first into the world, the chicken or the egg?"

"The chicken," replied Birbal.

"How do you know?" asked the scholar, a note of triumph in his voice.

"We had agreed you would ask only one question and you have already asked it" said Birbal and he and the emperor walked away leaving the scholar gaping.