Stories are something that always adds fun and enthusiasm to our fast-paced and hectic life. They are one way to add to our kids’ entertainment. Humour and satisfaction are what stories give us. Twists and turns make them so captivating, that we can’t resist ourselves reading them. But, whenever we think of Stories, Akbar and Birbal are the names that always strike our mind. Birbal is one name that is always at the top-notch when one talks of the nine gems of Akbar’s court.
So, here are 25 Akbar and Birbal moral stories that will help handle your kids’ tantrums by giving them doses of wits, wisdom, and humor.
The Fifty Jungles
Emperor Akbar was very fond of hunting, but because of his hobby, the flora and fauna of the forests got endangered. Birbal was very dejected to see this. But, as he was just a servant, he couldn’t show his reluctance openly.
One day, Birbal got the chance, as they were passing through the forests, they saw two groups of owls hooting loudly. The Emperor was aware of Birbal’s talent to acknowledge the bird’s language, so he asked him what the owls were saying?
Birbal said, “Maharaj, they are discussing a prospective marriage. The owl sitting on the right side is the bride’s father and the other one is the groom’s father. The bridegroom’s father is demanding fifty barren lands as dowry while the bride’s father is assuring to provide not only fifty, but sixty barren lands”.
Birbal further said that the groom’s father is saying, “If at present fifty barren lands are not there, how can there be sixty within a few days?” But, the bride’s father assures him that, as the Emperor is so fond of hunting, he will clear the jungles rapidly and within a few days forests will be abandoned by birds and beasts and then sixty barren lands won’t be an arduous job!
Hearing the explanation, the Emperor realized his mistake and he decided to stop the unnecessary killing of animals.
Moral-Â Animals are not ours to use them as a source of entertainment. We must not kill them instead we must try to protect them.
An Angel and a Witch
One day, the Emperor expressed his desire to Birbal to see an angel and a witch.
Next day, Birbal entered the court along with his wife and a prostitute. Showing his wife he said,” Maharaj, she is an angel from heaven, I get immense pleasure and satisfaction with her services”.
 To this, the Emperor said,” But, she is dark and weak. In Puranas, angels are described as dazzling beauties”. Birbal said,” Jahanpanah! True beauty lies in the qualities of an individual, not the color of skin. I achieve happiness as of heaven from her. She is an angel for me”.
Then, as Birbal presented the prostitute, the king cried,” Wow! She is such a beauty. Look at her expensive jewels and beautiful clothes”.To this, Birbal said, “All the expensive jewels and beautiful clothes are to flatter the world. The one who comes under her evil and wicked shadow destroy his own life”. The Emperor then realized, what Birbal said and understood that a good character and quality of mind determines one’s true beauty.
Moral- Â There is nothing more beautiful than someone who has a good moral character. It is not your appearance but your inner beauty that captures the heart.
What God does is for goodÂ
One day, the Emperor got his finger wounded while he was hunting. He showed his finger to Birbal. Birbal casually replied, “What God does is only for good”. The Emperor got exasperated by this statement of Birbal and told him not to come back to the court again.
Birbal replied to this, “This order should also be for good”.
Days rolled, Akbar thought of calling Birbal back. One day, he went for hunting along with his courtiers. There the Emperor’s horse went far ahead while chasing the hunt. The Emperor soon realized that his way was lost. He was trapped in a gloomy and intense jungle.
All of a sudden, the Emperor saw two shadows coming towards him. He was trapped by the tribal people. They took him to the temple and bathed him and gave him something to eat. One of them took out a sharp-edged knife and said, “We sacrifice one man every day before our goddess and today we have found you!”.
On hearing this, the Emperor started perspiring profusely and begged for help, but the wild tribals paid no attention to him. All the arrangements for sacrifice were ready, suddenly one of the wild men saw the Emperor’s half cut finger. He said,” How can we sacrifice a faulty body, our goddess will be angry with us”! The Emperor had a sigh of relief and he immediately left for the court.
He called Birbal and narrated the whole incident to him and said, “What you said turned out to be true, but when I told you not to come back to the court again, you said,” What God does is for good”? How could my order turn good for you?”.Â
Birbal replied smilingly, “Maharaj! If I would have been present in the court, then I would surely have accompanied you for the hunt and since my finger was not cut, I would have been sacrificed instead of you. So, your order saved my life. Wasn’t that good for me?”.
Moral- God works everything out for our good. We must never stop believing in him.
Who is Rich and Who is Poor?
One day, the Emperor out of nowhere asked, “Why is it that one is rich and another is poor in this world? God is like a father, taking care of his children, then why some have heaps of money while others have to strive hard for their daily bread?”Â
To this Birbal replied,”Your Majesty, but if God wouldn’t do all this, there would be chaos. You are our king and you make each one do a particular job and give a salary of thousand to some, fifty to some, while only five to some per month. Why don’t you pay everyone equally?”
 Hearing this, the Emperor started thinking deeply. Then Birbal continued,”You give them salary according to their work. More work gets more pay. If it wouldn’t be there, the world’s balance would come to a halt. God too follows the same law. He also tries to maintain the equilibrium between the happy and the sad. He protects us from awful things but, if anyone commits something wrong, he is sure to be punished. This is the law of Almighty!. Money depends on hard work. The one who toils hard and do more efforts gets more money, while the one who sits lazily remains in poverty and misery”.
 The Emperor was amazed with Birbal’s explanation.
Moral- Â Hard work always earns you wealth and success. Nothing worthy comes easy.
The Magical Sticks
A long time back, there was a merchant who was very fond of wearing jewels. He always had a diamond necklace around his neck. One day while going for a bath, he hung his necklace outside the bathroom in a hurry. After taking a bath, when he came out, he saw that the necklace had vanished.
He immediately called all his servants and questioned them about the lost necklace. But, all of them refused. Finally, he rushed to the court and lodged a complaint.Â
The Emperor asked Birbal to look into the matter. Birbal then asked the merchant to bring all his servants to the court the next day. The merchant followed Birbal’s instructions and went to the court with all his servants. Birbal then asked a guard to bring a bundle of sticks. Then he said, “I have cast a magical spell on all the sticks. Each one of you takes a stick and go back home. Tomorrow morning, come to the court along with your sticks. Whosoever is the thief, his stick would have been expanded by four fingers in length!”Â
At night, all were fast asleep but the culprit who had committed the theft could not sleep. After thinking deeply for a long time, an idea finally struck his mind. He got up and chopped off the stick by four fingers length with a knife. Then, he slept peacefully.
The next day, he came to the court very confidently. Birbal examined each and every stick carefully. When he saw that servant’s stick, he exclaimed, “Your Majesty! This man is the real thief!”.
The servant was very scared and turned red with shame. Birbal smiled and said, “You moron, I hadn’t at all cast a spell on the sticks. But, I knew whosoever is the thief will reduce its length. Now, straightaway return the necklace!”
The servant had to surrender and he handed over the necklace to Birbal.
Moral– A guilty conscience needs no accuser.
Whatever You Like
Once, a very miserly man lived in the city of Delhi. He worked very hard to earn his living. He would spend a very meager amount out of it for his needs and save the remaining amount.Â
He had bought many pearls and diamonds out of his savings, but lived in such a manner, that no one could ever make out that this man had seen diamonds and gems in his life. He hid those jewels and gems in an old ripped dirty cloth bag. One day, the miser’s hut caught fire.
 When he saw this, he started groaning.
 Everyone tried to put off the fire but the fire could not be extinguished but increased rapidly. Now, the miser started crying even louder. Hearing his loud cries and howls, a jeweler who was his neighbor got very irritated and said, “Stupid, for what you are crying so loudly?” Still crying, the miser said, “I am not crying for my hut, I am crying for my pearls and diamonds.”
Quite stunned, the jeweler asked, “Then, Where have you kept them?”
The miser pointed towards the place where they have been kept. The cunning jeweler out of his greed said, “If I will be able to take them out, I will give you back whatever I like. The remaining ones I will take, agreed?”
The miser thought that instead of losing everything, it is better to gain at least something and agreed.
The jeweler entered the flames and after a while came out with a bag of valuables. When the fire was totally put off, the jeweler kept all the valuables with himself and gave the dirty torn old bag to the miser. The miser was furious, but the jeweler said, “You had agreed with what I said. Now you won’t get anything!”
The miser begged,” Please sir. You have taken out the bag at the cost of your life. You may take half of the pearls and diamonds.” The jeweler smiled and said, “Not at all, I had told you in the first place that I will give you whatever I like.” The miser felt helpless. He rushed to the Emperor for justice. The Emperor handed over the case to Birbal.
Then Birbal asked them, “What was decided between you?”
The jeweler said, “It was decided that if I will take out the bag from the flames, I will give him whatever I like.” Then Birbal asked the miser, “Is the jeweler telling the truth?” The miser replied, “Yes Sir!” “Then what is your purpose of coming here?”, Birbal asked.”But Sir, he is taking all the pearls and diamonds and giving me this dirty old bag.” Birbal asked the jeweler, “What do you like amongst the two?”
“Sir! The pearls and diamonds, of course!”
To this Birbal said,” Then, You must give him the pearls and diamonds as you like them, and take the bag for yourself”.
The jeweler looked aghast. Birbal said further, “This is what was decided between you two, right?” The jeweler bent his head in shame.
Moral– We must not play a trump card on someone’s situation.
The Bag Of Coins
Once there was a big quarrel between an oil seller and a butcher. When they could not come to terms with each other, they approached Birbal to solve their dispute.
When the Butcher was asked the reason for the contention he said,” While I was selling meat in my shop, the oil seller came to me and asked for the oil container, when I went inside to fetch it, he stole my bag of gold coins and started saying that it belongs to him.”Â
The oil seller exclaimed,” No sir, it is false. This bag is really mine. While I was putting coins in the bag, he saw the bag full of money and said it was his.”
Birbal consistently asked for the truth, but both said that they were telling the truth.
Birbal finally asked the servants to bring a tank full of water and dipped the bag of coins into it. At once, the oil started floating over the water and Birbal realized that the bag really belonged to the oil seller, so he gave the bag of coins to him and the butcher was severely punished.
Moral–Â Truth can never be suppressed. The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature.
One’s own Religion
One day the Emperor was in a very happy mood, All of a sudden he said to Birbal, “You convert yourself into a Muslim!”.
Birbal said,” I will think it over”, and went away.
After leaving the palace Birbal went to the lower caste sweepers and said,” You better be careful, the Emperor is thinking of converting you all to Muslims”.
The lower castes got enraged on hearing this and soon organized themselves into a procession and went to the palace revolting and rebelling against the Emperor.
Their chief shouted,” Jahanpanah! Birbal is trying to convert us into Muslims. We will die but will never accept any other religion.”
To this Birbal said to the Emperor, “Jahanpanah, look even this sweeper from lower caste is not ready to change to any other religion. How can you expect the same from others?”.
Moral– We must respect every religion and we must not force our beliefs on others.
The Most Beautiful Child
Akbar and Birbal used to move about in the city at night in disguise. One day, while strolling they came across a very odd site, there a fair and beautiful woman was kissing her dark, ugly, and dirty child.
The emperor was astounded and asked Birbal,” Isn’t it strange ?”. Birbal replied, “No Jahanpanah, however ugly a child may be, for a mother he is the most beautiful of all”.
But, the emperor refused to agree. The next day Birbal asked an extremely dark ugly and unpleasant guard to bring the most beautiful and handsome boy to the court.
The guard told his wife about the job given to him by Birbal. His wife replied,” Then what is your difficulty? Isn’t our own son beautiful enough? Take him to the court!”.
The next morning the guard went to the court with his own son and said to the Emperor,” Maharaj, as per your wish, I have brought the most beautiful and handsome boy, my own son to the court”.
Hearing this the Maharaj and all other courtiers were shocked and looked at Birbal. Then Birbal said,” Your Majesty, now do you agree to what I said?”.
Moral– Everyone is beautiful in their own way.
The “Iron” and “Paris”
Once a brave soldier had sacrificed his life during the battle of Emperor Akbar with some other Kingdom. After his demise, his wife lived miserably, she used to spend her life in an utter state of poverty.
When Birbal came to know about her condition he was deeply moved, so he decided to help her out. He went to the poor woman and said,” Grandma, you must be having your husband’s old, rusty sword with you. Come to the emperor’s court tomorrow along with that sword and do as I say”.
The old woman agreed and next morning she went to the court with the sword and said to the Emperor, “Maharaj this is the only memento of my brave and clever husband, but as my days are numbered, I may die sooner or later, I request you to keep this precious thing with you”.
The emperor examined the sword, then returning it back to her he said, “Madam, this old and rusty sword is hard of any use. What is the purpose of keeping it in our armory? It would be better if you take it back!”.
The old woman felt disheartened and started leaving the court. Seeing the woman disappointed the Emperor felt pity on her and ordered the treasurer to give five gold coins to the woman. Seeing all this someone exclaimed, “Tch! Tch! Tch!. It was Birbal. The Emperor asked,” What is the matter ?”.Birbal replied,” Maharaj, even a mere touch of the stone-like “Paris” changes iron to gold, but see the sword even after the touch of Akbar, the Great, it remained as it is. This means that even the wife of your brave soldier who died fighting for you is very unfortunate, so I felt bad !”.
The Emperor understood what he meant to say. He realized the irony that the old and helpless wife of his loyal and brave soldier had to live a miserable and poverty-stricken life.Â
The Emperor at once ordered the treasurer to keep the sword in the armoury and give her gold equal to the weight of the sword.
Seeing this both Birbal and the old woman was very happy and the old woman thanked Birbal for his help.
Moral– We must never forget the sacrifice that others did for us.
The Emperor and the Artist
Once the Emperor asked Birbal to get the painting of his favorite horse made. Birbal sent for a well-known artist and had the painting done. When the painting was shown to the emperor he was pleased to see the painting but, in order to tease Birbal, he didn’t show that he was pleased.
He didn’t utter a single word of appreciation instead he started finding faults in the painting. The artist felt very disappointed to see his art getting insulted. But he could not do anything instead, he stood still with his head low. Birbal felt sorry for seeing the artist’s sad face.
Birbal then said,” Maharaj, we can bring your horse and make it stand near the painting, so that you can find out if there are any mistakes”. The Emperor permitted him. The guard at once brought the horse and made him stand near the painting.
On looking at the painting the horse started neighing loudly. The Emperor asked,” Why is the horse neighing?”.Â
To this Birbal replied,” Maharaj, your horse is more intelligent than you. Thinking the horse in the painting as his friend, he is anxious to run along with him. What could be a greater proof of the realistic effect of the artist’s art”.
 The emperor had a great admiration for Birbal’s cleverness and awarded the artist with a handsome reward worth his masterpiece.
Moral– We must never underrate an artist’s art.
Oversmartness does not Pay!Â
Emperor Akbar was very moody by nature. No one could ever predict what would come to his mind.
One day in order to please the Emperor, two of the courtiers said to Akbar,” Huzur, you ask us for whatever you please, we will present it for you”.
The emperor at once understood that they were trying to create a good impression of themselves and said, “Alright as you say, one of you bring some air in the paper for me and one of you bring fire wrapped in paper”.
Hearing this, the two of the courtiers were taken aback, they felt helpless and approached Birbal to seek help.Â
They came to Birbal’s place and touching his feet said, “Birbal, Now you can only save our lives”. They told him about their problem.
Birbal after thinking for a while said,” One of you make a paper lantern and the other prepares a paper fan then go to the Emperor”. Both were pleased to hear this clever idea.
The next day one of them took the paper lantern and the other took the paper fan to the Emperor.
 The Emperor was quite amazed to see this.
Birbal was secretly smiling in the corner. When the Emperor noticed Birbal, he understood everything. He asked the courtiers,” Whose idea is this?”. The couriers were frightened and took Birbal’s name.
 The Emperor said,” Don’t repeat such foolishness again. Your qualities will surely be appreciated, but do not act over smart or you will be sure to invite trouble for yourselves!”.
Moral– We must not act over smart or we will land ourselves in trouble.
The Verbal Reward
Once, a poet went to a rich man and recited several poems for him with the hope that the rich man would give him some handsome reward. But the rich man was very shrewd. He said, “Honourable poet, I am very happy with your poems, please come tomorrow and I will please you really well”.
The poor poet went away happily. The next day, when he went to the rich man to receive his reward, the rich man said, “Just as you pleased me with your poems, I too pleased you by saying, “Come tomorrow”. Does it not make us even?”.
The poet was very disheartened. He went to Birbal sobbing and asked for help.
Birbal said,” He must be taught a good lesson. Do as I say. You befriend the rich man and one day invite him for lunch, also invite your other poet friends and I myself would be present there. We all will gather some time before the fixed time. Then, after having lunch, we will sit easily chatting with each other. I will see what has to be done later”.
The poet did the same, after some days the arrangement was made and all of them gathered. The rich man came at a fixed time. At that time Birbal and the poet’s friends were busy talking to each other.
Gradually, the time passed and the lunchtime was over, but no one paid attention to it. The rich man got annoyed and impatiently said, “It’s already past noon. Aren’t we having any lunch?”.
Birbal said,” Lunch? What lunch?”.
The rich man shouted, “Hadn’t we gathered here for lunch?. What do you mean by what lunch?”.
Birbal said,” No, not at all, there wasn’t an invitation for lunch. Only to please you, you were told: “Come for Lunch”.
The rich man turned red in anger and said,” In this way, you insult and cheat a respectable person?”.
Birbal giggled and said,” When did I say such behavior is right? But you too had cheated the poet, in the same way, saying”Come tomorrow” so I too said the same to please you. We thought perhaps this was the right behavior amongst cultured men”.
The rich man realized his mistake and gave the poet his reward.Â
Moral– Tit for tat.
Birbal’s “Khichdi”
It was a chilling winter eve when Akbar and Birbal were taking around near the lake. While walking they came across a very poor man who could do anything for money, but the Emperor refused to agree.
He said,” If the man would be able to stand in this freezingly cold pond one entire night, that too bare body I will give him one thousand gold coins”.
Birbal informed the poor man about the Emperor’s offer. The poor man readily agreed, after all his poverty could be removed with one thousand gold coins.
The Emperor then posted guards along the pond. The poor man stood in the pond naked. In the morning he was taken before the Emperor.
The Emperor was quite astonished. He asked,” How could you stand in such freezingly cold water and that too in a winter night?”.
The poor man innocently replied,” All through the night I kept looking at the street light”.
The Emperor said,” Hmm, so that is the reason you could get warmth from the street light. I won’t give you any reward”.
The poor man was driven out of the palace. He went to Birbal to seek justice.
Birbal sympathetically listened to him and assured to help him out. The next day at the time of court there was no sign of Birbal. When the Emperor asked the reason for his absence, he was told that Birbal was cooking “khichdi”, when it will be cooked he will surely arrive.
Maharaj waited for long and when there was no sign of him, he grew anxious and decided to approach him. When he went to Birbal’s house he saw that Birbal had fixed three bamboos in the ground and from their upper ends a pot was suspended at a height of about five feet from the ground.
The Emperor and the courtiers started chuckling seeing this funny sight. The Emperor asked Birbal if he was coming to the court or not.
Birbal replied,” Your majesty, as soon as this “khichdi” will be cooked, I will come!”.
The Emperor smiled and said, “But the pot is too high. How can the heat from these little twigs reach the pot?”.
Birbal said innocently,” Why not? Yesterday that man stood in the pond. The Street light was one furlong away from him. Yet, he could feel it’s warmth. Then this pot is only five feet high. My “khichdi” is bound to get cooked. Isn’t it?”.
The Emperor realized his mistake. He said,” Birbal your “khichdi” is cooked. Call the poor man!”.
The Emperor felt sorry for his misconduct and gave that poor man one thousand gold coins, which he deserved.
Moral–If there is a will, even a small ray of hope can help you achieve your goal.
