One day, Akbar held a celebration in the palace. He invited all his courtiers for a grand feast. After eating their meal, they sat down to have fresh dates for dessert. Both Akbar and Birbal loved dates, so they ate with gusto the dates in their bowl.

While eating, they threw the seeds under their respective chairs. All that was left was a sizable pile of date seeds under their seats by the time they had finished their desserts.

When Akbar saw the seed pile, he had an idea. “No matter how much I try, I have never been able to get the better of Birbal. This time I will match wits with him and come victorious.”

Thinking so, Akbar pushed his pile of seeds with his foot to under Birbal’s chair. Birbal was busy looking at someone else and did not notice this.

After doing that, Akbar exclaimed loudly, “Birbal, it looks like your stomach is a bottomless pit. Look at the pile of seeds under your chair. Despite having a heavy lunch, you have eaten so many dates.”

The other courtiers laughed. They always envied Birbal for being the favorite of the emperor. Not only that, Birbal often made them look foolish, and for once, it looked like it was Birbal’s turn.

Birbal bent his head and saw the massive heap of seeds under his chair, whereas there was none under the emperor’s chair.

He immediately understood what was going on. “The emperor is trying to embarrass me in front of my peers. I cannot allow him to make me look foolish.”

Loudly he replied, “What you say is correct, your majesty. The dates served in your palace was so delicious that I could not control myself. But your majesty, while I was greedy to eat so many dates, you are even more of a glutton. Not only have you eaten the dates, but you have also eaten their seeds.”

He pointed under Akbar’s chair.

To Akbar’s embarrassment and the courtiers’ amusement, there was not a single seed under Akbar’s chair. Birbal had again turned tables on the emperor with his quick thinking.

Akbar looked fondly at Birbal. Instead of feeling angry that Birbal embarrassed him, he praised Birbal for being so smart.