Akbar’s Hasty Judgement

Once Emperor Akbar was riding near a mango grove. An arrow whizzed past him. His soldiers rushed to the grove and caught the person who did this. He was a young boy. On asking why did he want to kill the Emperor, he said that he did not want to kill the Emperor, he just wanted to knock down a mango from a high branch.

The Emperor was too angry to listen to him. He ordered to put him to death in the same way as the boy wanted to kill him.

A soldier tied the boy with a tree stump and steadied his arrow to kill him. Birbal, who was watching all this process quietly so far, now shouted, “This is not fair. If you want to shoot him in the same way as he tried to shoot the Emperor, then you will have to aim for a mango. And then the arrow has to miss the mango and strike the boy.”

Akbar had calmed down by now. Thinking that it was unfair to the boy, he ordered his soldiers to release the boy. Thus Birbal saved that innocent boy.