The King of Iran Story 

Birbal was a very famous person in King Akbar’s court. His tales of intelligence had spread far and wide. The King of Iran had also heard of him. Once he invited Birbal to his royal court. He wanted to test Birbal’s intelligence on his own.

After traveling for some days, Birbal reached the royal court of Iran. He was given a warm welcome. After rest and some refreshment, Birbal was taken to the king’s palace. But when he entered the royal court, a strange scene met his eyes.

In the court, there were four men sitting on four thrones. Each of them wore the same royal robes, identical crowns, and ornaments. All of them looked so alike that it was difficult to make out one from the other. Birbal got confused. He had never seen the King of Iran, so he did not know whom to greet.

Birbal thought for a moment and came up with a clever plan. He merely stood still without a word and kept looking at all the four. After about five minutes, he went and bowed in front of one of the men and said, “Greetings to you, Your Majesty. I bring a message of goodwill and friendship from my King, Emperor Akbar of India.”

The man got up and said, “Birbal, welcome to Iran. You are indeed clever but tell me how you identified me as the true King. After all, we have never met before.”

Birbal smiled and said, “Your Majesty, when I had stood still and not spoken up, the other three men did not know what to do. They kept glancing at you to know how you would react, so they could copy you. But you, being the King, kept looking straight ahead.

The King of Iran was very impressed by Birbal’s reply. He had wanted to test Birbal himself and now truly believed that he was the best.