This blog post is going into the Motivational Stories category.. Ohh Yeah.. Today am in a mood to write down a story I remember just really well. I always wonder about such childhood stories, they used to be so simple yet leave us with so many lessons to learn for Life. So, this one’s from my favorite characters, Akbar and Birbal. These two historic legends are said to have shared a great bond, and have left some incredible stories for the ages ahead of them to hear and learn from. They are not only funny but carry a strong message and questions on Society, routine, rituals and practices strongly.

Birbal was a really wise and intelligent man, people used to admire him for his character and rich knowledge he possessed regarding every field. Almost all the decisions of the reign were taken after consulting with him. He was one of the most important ministers and closest to Akbar. Birbal was just so very dear to Akbar, not just because of his skills but because of the way their bond had grown strong over the years. Many people were jealous of him due to his such great friendship with Akbar and him involving such a important place in the reign. He never paid heed to such fellas and completely ignored them. Now, Akbar’s brother in law being jealous of Birbal, wanted to replace him as the minister. But he knew that this was tough since Akbar would never ever do something like that. As soon as Birbal came to know regarding this, he directly gave a resignation and left his position. And soon on his demand, Akbar made his brother in law the new minister replacing Birbal.

So, one fine day Akbar decided to test his new made minister. He called him up and gave him 300 gold coins, and then assigned him a task to use those gold coins such a way that at the end he gets back 100 gold coins when he returns, and the next 100 gold coins he gets back in his next lifetime and the remaining 100 coins he neither gets now nor in the next birth. This was one tough task for him. He thought a lot, in every way and every logic he could gather around but none sufficed to put things together. At the end, on his wife’s advise he decided to approach Birbal for this. On doing so, Birbal smilled and asked him to hand over those 300 gold coins. So what do you think he must have done ? Haha, he was really intelligent as i had mentioned and he knew exactly how the task was supposed to be done.

Taking those 300 gold coins, he went to the main street. He kept walking and walking for miles. And then at one place he saw that a rich merchant was celebrating his son’s birthday. He had arranged a lavish party and invited famous and powerful people around. Going inside he went to personally meet the merchant, handing over 100 gold coins to his son for his birthday told him that the King Akbar himself had send him there with the coins and had heartily wished him many happy returns of the day. These made the merchant really very happy and to such step by the King, merchant gifted him back gold utensils and gifts worth thousands of coins as a sign of appreciation. Akbar gracefully accepting those presents left the place.

After having spend a 100 gold coins, he was left with 200 more. The next 100 coins he decided to distribute to the poor people. But this time he didn’t directly handover the money, he bought them blankets, jackets and some other utilities and got them distributed among the less privileged crowd. And returning back to the town, he arranged a grand and big music concert, and invited a lot of people and spend an exploding amount of 100 gold coins on this event. With this, he had completed utilizing the whole among that was handed over to him, and also had accomplished the task assigned. He explained Akbar’s Brother in law how the task was done, listening to the solution, Minister was astonished and for the first time agreed with him. So now the minister went to the palace, going in front of the King he presented the solution which itself binds in it a one time solution to life problems.

The task went as he had to spend 300 gold coins, first 100 coins he wanted back, so that was done when the rich merchant got happy and gave him so many expensive gifts as a return gift. And the next 100 coins he utilized to buying blankets and stuff for the poor people. Those beings won’t be able to written the money or the favors. All they could do was give the donor blessings for a beautiful life, with the feeling that money shall be returned to him back on some day which could either exits in future or even the next birth. But the debt shall be returned.

And this was a twist, Akbar couldn’t believe his brother wasn’t so talented that he could solve this riddle with such an ease. Being acquainted with Birbal for such a long time, it flashed to him that this was solved by none other than Birble, due to tedha solution that they had come up with. So later realizing his mistake the brother in law resigned as the minister and Birbal was re-assigned to his position. And everything went smoothly after that.

What we learn from this story ? :O .. It’s such an important lesson we can get from this. You see, it’s simple. When you invest in some good charity work or in some social activity, then we get blessings from them and hence our deeds become better which makes us more blissful and enlightened. And when you invest from the Business point of you, you get your returns in doubled amount. And then there is a third kind, where you invest in some random, unnecessary and useless activity and such investments have no returns, they just put you into debt. So, that is it you are now to decide what kind of deeds you want to have. You could be a good Business and a social activist at the same time but putting money into wrong things would lead to nothing except wastage.

A shorthand takeaway – Invest wisely ! 🙂