The Stories Of Akbar And Birbal

3. Sometimes, all you need is a great idea.

Once there was a complaint at King Akbar’s court. There were two neighbours who shared a garden. The garden had a well that was owned by Iqbal Khan. His neighbour, a farmer wanted to buy the well for irrigation purpose. Therefore, they signed an agreement between them, according to which the farmer owned the well. Even after selling the well to the farmer, Iqbal continued to fetch water from the well. Angered by this, the farmer came to King Akbar. Akbar asked Iqbal the reason behind fetching water from the well after it had been sold. Iqbal replied that he had sold only the well to the farmer and not the water inside it. The matter went to Birbal who solved it in less than a minute. He said, ‘Iqbal, you say that you have sold only the well to the farmer. And you claim that the water is yours. Then how come you can keep your water inside another person’s well without paying rent?’ Iqbal returned home speechless. Sometimes, matters at work need to be dealt with with a presence of mind and little trickery.