Judging Truth

Once there was a religious man who wanted to go on a pilgrimage. He did not want to take his life savings with him on his journey, so he went to one of his good friends and took him to a forest so that he could talk to him in private. So both of them went to the forest. There he told him that he was going on a pilgrimage and asked him to hold his savings for him till he came back. He would collect it when he returned. His friend agreed to keep his money for him, took the bag and the next day that man left for his pilgrimage.

Many years passed but the religious man did not return; but one morning that man came and knocked on his friend’s door and asked for his money back. His friend kept changing the subject, but in the end he said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What money? What do you even mean?” The old man was shocked to hear this, but respectfully he reminded him of the whole incident. The friend said, “You’re crazy. When did you give me any money? You’re lying.” The man kept requesting his money but the friend did not hear a word and shut his door on him.

The old man was understandably upset and very disappointed and went to the Emperor Akbar. Akbar heard his story, called his wise advisor Birbal and handed over the case to him. Birbal also heard his story and called his friend to whom he gave his money. Birbal asked him to return the old man’s money which he gave him before going on pilgrimage; but the friend clearly refused saying that he had no idea what he was talking about and did not give him any money.

Now Birbal was perplexed about what to do in this case. After a while he asked the old man, “Do you have any witness that you gave your money to him?” “No, Sir. Because I gave him that money in a forest under a mango tree.”

Birbal scolded him, “You are foolish to say that you have no witness. You do have a witness – that mango tree is your witness. Can’t you get some help from that mango tree?” The old man kept listening and looked bewilderedly at Birbal. “How in the world is that tree going to help me in this matter?” he thought. He kept thinking, “Is Birbal not a fool?” At the same time Birbal said, “Go and bring that mango tree here. Tell him that Birbal wants you to be present before him in this case. Go quickly and bring the tree here.”

The old man now was sure that Birbal had gone mad, but since he had no other alternative, he set out to find the  the forest. Both Birbal and the friend sat waiting for the old man to bring the mango tree. One hour passed, two hours passed. When the old man did not come back, Birbal said loudly, “Why is this man not coming back? Two hours have already passed. Why is he taking such a long time to do such a small task?”

The friend immediately spoke, “Sir, he can’t possibly come so soon, because he would not have even reached that place yet.” Birbal asked him, “What do you mean? Do you mean that the place where the mango tree stands is so far away that it would take him more than two hours to get there?” “Yes Sir. The place he told you about is very far from here.” Birbal said, “Oh, I see,” and kept quiet.

A long time passed. Finally, the old man returned and said to Birbal, “Sir, I gave your message to the mango tree but, not surprisingly, at least to me, it did not answer.” Birbal said, “Do not worry, the tree has already witnessed that you gave money to this man.” Then he said to the old man’s friend, “You have one more chance to accept your guilt and return the money to him.” But the friend kept insisting that the old man did not give any money to him to which Birbal asked, “Then how do you know that the mango tree under which he claimed that he gave the money to you, is so far away from here?”

Shame-faced and exposed for lying, the friend acknowledged his lie and returned the money to the old man.

Sooner or later, the truth comes out in the light because to hide a truth we have to tell many lies and somewhere they clash and we are caught in them. Truth, on the other hand, is one and is easy to remember.

~ Birbal (born Mahesh Das; 1528–1586), or Raja Birbal, was an advisor in the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Akbar-Birbal folk tales were passed on mainly by oral tradition.