Padishah Akbar was a great lover of all kinds of fairy tales, true stories and fables, and started a custom at court: every evening his entourage took turns entertaining him by telling some stories.
When Birbal’s turn came, the padishah began to urge him every now and then. Akbar loved long tales, and as soon as the narrator finished his sentence, the padishah immediately asked impatiently:
- What next?
He couldn't please him with a short tale; give him a whole story.
Once Birbal spoke for a long time, night had already fallen, and the padishah was listening and it did not seem that he was going to let the narrator go. Birbal got angry and thought: “Oh, it’s not easy to please His Majesty. He just says one word and rests. We would like to find a way so that the padishah would no longer want to listen for a long time.” As you know, he was a wise man and came up with such a remedy, starting a new story:
— One rich man in the village ordered to make a huge clay pot to store grain in it. He poured grain into the pot to the top and closed the lid so tightly that even air could not get inside. But you can’t protect yourself from chance - a crack appeared along the wall of the pot, and then, lo and behold, it became a crack. Through this crack a small bird snuck into the pot, took a grain in its beak, jumped out, flapped its wings - “fir-rr”, they made a noise - and flew away. Then another bird looked into the pot, took its share, “fir-r-r” - and flew away. Then the third bird appeared, also pecked at the grain, “fir-r-r” - and flew away.
So Birbal repeated the same thing many times. The padishah got tired of repeating “further, further...”, and he got angry:
“I’ve already heard this, tell me, what happened next?”
- Lord of the world! - Birbal answered with a serious look. — Birds flocked there, apparently and invisibly, tens of millions of birds flew for grain, they all took turns taking a grain and flying away. Now it’s the one hundred and fiftieth’s turn. When all the birds have eaten their fill, and this will take several years, then the story will move on, and not before.
“I’m already fed up with your story, let’s end it there,” Akbar said angrily.
That’s all Birbal needed, and, chuckling to himself, he went home.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru