Once a bird-catcher came to emperor Akbar’s court and offered him an extremely beautiful bird. It had beautiful colors – like a peacock. No one had seen a bird like this before. The bird-catcher claimed that it was a rare bird. And with great difficulty, he had caught it for emperor Akbar from a far jungle.
Hearing this, Akbar was immensely pleased. He accepted the bird and rewarded the bird-catcher with many gold coins. The bird-catcher thanked Akbar and left.
Everyone in the court was praising the beautiful bird, but Birbal kept quiet. After some time, he asked one of the servants to get one jug of water. The servant handed the water jug to Birbal in a few minutes. Birbal immediately got up from his place and poured the entire jug of water on the bird.
Everyone looked in horror as colors started dripping out of the bird. Underneath all the colors, it was a pigeon.
Akbar asked Birbal how did it he know. Birbal said that the bird catcher’s hand had some color marks, so he got suspicious.
Akbar immediately ordered his men to find the bird-catcher and warn him not to trick others. The gold coins given to the bird-catcher were taken away and given to Birbal as a reward.
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