Seeing that Birbal was showered with gifts by the Emperor, many courtiers didn’t like it. They again hatched plots to remove Birbal from his place. They gathered together to plot a conspiracy through which they could achieve their mischievous motive.
One day, a courtier went to meet Akbar. “Your majesty, pardon me for appearing before you This doesn᾿t sound correct. But I don᾿t know what to replace this with. I wanted to bring something to your attention,” said he.
The courtier further said, “Your Majesty, I am not sure whether you have noticed or not, but Birbal is not regular in the court these days. He either comes late or doesn’t come at all.” Since Birbal was very dear to Akbar, he became furious with the courtier for bringing up such an issue. But he wanted to listen first to the courtier, because Birbal had actually become a little irregular in the court.
The courtier added, “My lord! I have heard that Birbal is busy learning magic tricks these days and making predictions about the future too.”
As the courtier finished talking, Akbar dismissed him and waited for the next day. As the sun rose and the court was being set, everyone took his seat in his respective place. Then, Akbar called Birbal and ordered him to stand before him.
“I have learnt of late that you have been learning magic; that is why you have become irregular in the court sessions. Why don’t you perform a magic trick for me? Let me find out how good you are at it,” said Akbar with anger in his voice.
At first, Birbal couldn’t understand what the Emperor was talking about. Akbar continued saying, “Find out my missing ring by magic.” The Emperor had given a courtier the ring to hide it. Birbal understood that there must be some planning of the jealous courtiers. So, he decided to play along.
He asked the servant to bring a small bowl of rice. Then he started chanting some words and threw a handful of rice in the air. Birbal pretended that he was performing some magic ritual. He said, “Your Majesty, my magic trick is over. Now wherever the ring is, it will fly in the air and come to you.”
After listening to this, the courtier became very nervous as he believed what Birbal had said. So, he held onto the ring even tighter so that the ring might not fly away. Nervousness was clearly evident on his face, and that’s what Birbal observed. Now he knew who had the ring.
So, Birbal pointed at the courtier and said that he had the ring. All jealous courtiers were disappointed and Akbar was yet again impressed with his favourite minister.
