Birbal was very wise and witty, and Emperor Akbar’s favorite. This made the other courtiers jealous of him, and they were always trying to find ways to make him look foolish. One Day the court barber, who was very jealous of Birbal, plotted a plan against him. Akbar called him to trim his beard. As the barber started trimming the Emperor’s beard, he said, “Sir, last night I dreamed about your father.” The Emperor got interested, so he asked, “What did he say to you ?”
“Sir, he said to me, that everything is good in paradise, but he feels the absence of a good humorous man who can amuse him.” Akbar thought hard, but nobody else could he think of except Birbal who could perform this kind of duty very well. And, naturally, the only way to go to heaven was through death. For a moment, Akbar was very sad to lose such a good man, but thinking of his father, he made up his mind.
He summoned Birbal and said, “I think Birbal you love me very much and can sacrifice anything for me. Birbal said “You Know Majesty, i do.”
“Then Birbal, please go to heaven to give company to my dear father.” Birbal realized that this was a wicked plan of somebody to kill him. He said to the Emperor politely, “I will do so, but I need a few days to prepare myself to go to the heaven.” Akbar asked, “Certainly, I will allow you one week to prepare yourself.”
Birbal went back home and thought about the whole thing. Somebody had planned very well and it seemed h could not escape from this plan. But then, Birbal found a way. He dug a ditch near his house which would serve as his grave, and dug a tunnel too which would open in a room of his house. After doing this, he returned to the court.
Birbal told Akbar, “I am ready, Your Majesty, but there are two conditions.” Akbar was so happy to hear this that he did not mind whatever conditions Birbal might have had. He asked, “Tell me the conditions, I will try to fulfill them, so that you can go to heaven to be with my dear father soon.”
Birbal said, “I wish to be buried near my house. And want to be buried alive so that I can reach heaven alive so that I can reach heaven alive to amuse your dear father.” Akbar found this to be sensible and agreed immediately. So Birbal was buried alive near his house. Birbal’s journey to heaven started from here, he immediately made his way into the house where he lived in hiding for six months.
After six months, he came out with a fully-grown beard and shabby hair and went straight to the royal court. Looking at him Akbar cried, “How have you been Birbal ?” Birbal answered, “Your Majesty, I was in heaven with your dear father. I had a very food time there with him. He was so happy with my services that he gave me special permission to return to Earth.”
“Did he send any message for me?” Akbar was anxious to know. Birbal said, “Yes Your Majesty, he said that very few barbers are able to got to heaven, as you can make out from my beard and shabby hair. So he asked to send your own barber to him immediately.”
Akbar understood everything. When the barber was told to go to Heaven, he immediately admitted that it was a plan to kill Birbal forever. Akbar got very angry on hearing this and he gave his Barber the life sentence and Birbal was rewarded for his cleverness and handling the whole situation intelligently. Once again Birbal proved that through intelligence one can face any hurdle in life.
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