Once, during a discussion with the king Tenali said that given a chance anyone would lie to which the king said he never lied. Tenali asked to prove it in a year’s time with 1,000 gold coins.
During that year Tenali went away and built a palatial house and placed a big mirror on one of the walls. He then went to the king disguised as a sage and said he had built a great house to pray where only people who had never lied could see God. To test this, the king sent two of his ministers one by one who saw the mirror and lied that they had seen God so that they might be known to be honest.
Satisfied the king also went for inspection. He saw the mirror too but no God. He thought if he said he didn’t see any God people would think he was a liar and, hence lied too that he could see God in the house.
On hearing this, Tenali removed his beard and told the king that even he lied when the condition arose. The king was very ashamed of this.
