The Two Brothers

One day, two brothers stormed into Emperor Akbar’s court. Their father had left them his property and they were fighting over it. While the younger brother wanted his share of the property, the elder brother wanted it all for himself. As they continued to quarrel, Birbal intervened. He told Akbar, “Your Majesty, long ago, after God had created the Earth, He created animals and humans. He got so engrossed in creating animals that He had little clay left to create humans. God made humans with the remaining clay, but they were too few. So He turned some of the animals into humans. Although such creations had the body of humans yet they had the soul of animals. Even today, we see some of them.” Everybody laughed out loud. The elder brother understood that Birbal was referring to him and stopped quarrelling. Akbar then divided the property equally between the brothers.