One day, Emperor Akbar was walking in his garden. On his finger was a very special ring with a large red ruby. Akbar loved that ring deeply because it reminded him of his mother.
Suddenly, the ring slipped off his finger and fell into the grass. Akbar looked everywhere, but the ring was nowhere to be found. He immediately called the guards and gardeners.
Everyone searched through the grass, checked the flower beds, and looked around the fountain, but there was no sign of the ring.
The next day in court, Akbar sat looking very sad. Whispers started among the courtiers. Some said it must have been stolen; others began suspecting the servants. The atmosphere was turning unpleasant.
Birbal listened quietly. Then he said softly, “Your Majesty, do not worry. The ring is not lost—it has only played a little mischief. Please give me a little time.”
Birbal went to the garden. He carefully noticed that a pet monkey of the palace was jumping about in a tree, happily waving its tail. Birbal smiled. He asked the gardener for some sweet fruits and sat under the tree.
Slowly, the monkey came down and began eating the fruits. At that moment, Birbal saw something shiny on one of the monkey’s fingers. It was the emperor’s ring! The monkey had taken the glittering ring, thinking it was a toy, put it on its own finger, and hidden it up in the tree.
Birbal gently offered more fruits to the monkey and carefully took the ring off its finger. Then he returned to the court and smilingly placed the ring before Akbar.
Akbar was astonished. “Birbal! Where did you find this?”
Birbal laughed and replied, “Your Majesty, sometimes lost things are not on the ground—they are hidden up in the trees. We only need to look carefully.”
The whole court burst into laughter. Akbar breathed a sigh of relief and patted Birbal on the back.
Moral: Before quickly suspecting someone, look carefully and think. Paying attention to small things can solve even big mysteries.