Once, a farmer came crying for help to the Emperor of Agra, Akbar. Seeing the farmer very sad, Akbar asked, “Hey man, what happened to you?” The farmer replied, “O Lord of the world! I need your help. This man has cheated me. He is my neighbour. A few days before he sold his well to me. But when I went to take out water from the well, he stopped me and asked money for the water.”
The neighbour was sent for. Upon reaching the court, the neighbour said, “O Emperor! That is true that I sold him the well. But I did not sell the water of the well.” Akbar tried to analyse the situation and thought that this was one of the rare cases which would be very interesting to solve. Then, he looked at Birbal and ordered him to find out what the solution to the problem could be and who was guilty.
Birbal stood up, bowed down before Akbar and said to the man who sold the well, “I see. You sold the well to him, not the water inside it. Right? The well is his and the water is yours. Don’t you think that you should be either paying rent to the farmer or taking all the water out of the well, keeping the fact in mind that you have kept the water in his well?”
The neighbour thought that he won’t be able to argue against Birbal. So, he apologized to the farmer and left.
Next day, two men entered the royal court, escorted by a courtier. On being asked, the first man said, “Your majesty! I am a simple tradesman. But this man standing right beside me says that I am his servant and has blamed me for stealing his money.”
The very next moment, the second man said, “O Emperor! This man is lying. I am the shopkeeper. I had gone to Afghanistan for some time and I had left my money and belongings to him as I trusted him. But when I came back, I found out that he was using my name and running my business.”
After hearing both sides, Akbar ordered Birbal to solve the riddle. Birbal said, “Your Majesty, as you know with God’s grace I have the power of reading people’s minds. And I can tell who the liar is in a spur of the moment.”
Then, Birbal ordered the guard who was also present in the room to behead the servant. The guard was puzzled as he didn’t know who the servant was. So, he simply walked towards both. All of a sudden, the real servant ran and fell into the feet of Akbar. He had panicked and believed that Birbal could actually read minds.
