The Art of Fortune-Telling Story
All the courtiers in King Akbar’s royal court were very jealous of Birbal’s favored position. They were always trying to play tricks on him. One day they made a plan.
In the court, one of them got up and said, ‘Your Majesty, I have observed that Birbal has not been paying attention to his work. He is engrossed in learning the art of fortune-telling and other related magics.”
Another courtier said, “Your Majesty, we are fed up of listening to him bragging about his magical skills. He claims he can do anything by his magic mantras.”
King Akbar grew thoughtful about testing Birbal to know the truth.
When Birbal arrived in the court, King Akbar said, “ Birbal, I have heard that you have gained the knowledge of fortune-telling and magic mantras. Can you use your art for locating the ring that I lost a few minutes ago ?"
Birbal understood that the courtiers must have some plan to put him in place.
So, Birbal agreed and said, “Yes, Your Majesty. You will see that the ring will automatically reach your finger.”
Birbal took a piece of paper and drew some abstract lines on it. Then he asked the King to place his hand on the paper. Then Birbal took some grains of rice and threw them on the courtiers. The courtiers started getting nervous.
One of them thought “I must hold on to the ring in my pocket. Birbal had said that the ring would reach the King’s fingers itself.”
Thinking so, the courtier held his pocket tightly. Birbal noticed this.
He said aloud, “Your Majesty, I have found the ring. It is in this courtier’s pocket.”
At once all the courtiers knew that they had been tricked into this. King Akbar had himself given the ring to the courtier to hide but his nervous actions had given him away. King Akbar realized that the courtiers had fallen into their own trap. He praised Birbal once more and gifted him the ring he had helped to locate.
This story about King Akbar and Birbal tells us about the sharpness of the intellect of Birbal and how he was making use of it to come out of his problems. He was a shrewd person to overcome any type of intellect.