Once, a bird-catcher brought a beautiful rare bird for the king. Impressed the king decided to reward him but Tenali Raman stopped him.
On being asked for an explanation Raman said that it was no rare bird and the bird-catcher was befooling the king.
To prove, he poured water on the bird. All the colours it was painted in were washed off. It came out to be a common pigeon. On asking how he knew that, Raman answered that he observed the painted nails of the bird-catcher.
They were freshly coloured after painting the pigeon in all those hues. On knowing this, the bird-catcher was put in prison for trying to cheat the king. Raman was rewarded for his intelligence.
