The Corrupt Officer Story
One day the guards presented a man in King Akbar’s court.
One of the guards said, “Your Majesty, he is a man caught taking bribes.”
“What was he working as?” the King asked.
“Your Majesty, he is the officer in charge of the granary.”
“Put him in prison. I’ll think of his punishment later on.” Then Birbal said, “A corrupt man will take bribes whatever position he may hold.”
A courtier got up and said, “I beg your pardon but I do not believe this. There are some jobs in which one cannot take any bribe at all.”
“All right,” said Birbal “I’ll put this corrupt man to the job you suggest and we’ll see what he does.”
So the courtier said, “Give him the job of counting the waves in the river Yamuna. I am sure he can’t take bribes in this task.”
King Akbar and Birbal agreed. The corrupt man was called from the prison. He was told to sit by the river Yamuna the whole day and count its waves.
Some days passed. One day King Akbar asked, “Birbal, is there any complaint from the man whom we had punished for taking bribes?”
The courtier intervened, “There is no news. Your Majesty, I told you he can’t take bribes there."
To this, Birbal said, “We'll go there tomorrow morning and see for ourselves.”
The next day at dawn, Birbal, the courtier, and King Akbar disguised themselves as fishermen. They took a boat, a net and went out to the river Yamuna. They rowed nearer to the shore where the man was sitting with a pen and paper in his hands and was busy in noting something.
As they neared him, he got up and shouted, “Hey, who are you? What are you doing here?”
“We are poor fishermen, sir. We are here to catch fish from the waters.”
“Do you know you’ve interfered with some work being done by royal orders? I have been appointed to count waves in the river. Now you’ve come and disturbed me. You will be punished for this.”
“But sir, we are poor fishermen.” “All right, you’ll have to pay a fine of a hundred gold coins.”
“Be kind sir. We don’t have so much but….”
“You can give me fifty gold coins. Can’t you?” the man said.
But one of the fishermen said angrily, “He’s asking for a hundred and I’ll give to him,” saying this, he took off his disguise. He was King Akbar. The man stepped back in shock.
“I’ll give you a hundred lashes on your back.” the King said to the man.
Then he said to Birbal,” You were right, Birbal. A corrupt man will find ways to take bribe whatever job he is in.”
The courtier did not have anything to say. The corrupt officer was given a hundred lashes and put in prison.