The Foolish Brahmin

Birbal was always very famous for his generosity and his will to help people as a service to them and the country. His fame reached out to a simple but a foolish Brahmin, who wanted to be called a Pandit. This man reached Birbal and presented his query to him. Birbal was completely surprised and couldn’t understand why this foolish Brahmin wants to be a pandit. The Brahmin was an uneducated man. Birbal explained it to him that Pandits are educated and learned people, and hence the title cannot be given to Brahmin, but the foolish man kept arguing about it that he wants Birbal to convince the rest of the community to call him Pandit.

Birbal, being the witty man that he always was, came up with a unique idea. He suggested Brahmin to pretend to be angry at anyone who calls him Pandit. In fact he told him to throw stones at such people and swear at them. Brahmin, who didn’t even understand the basis of it, agreed to the solution. Birbal called upon his workers and guards, and instructed them to call this foolish Brahmin, a Pandit. As Birbal’s workers had no option but to obey his instructions, they started calling the man a Pandit. In a matter of moments, Brahmin reacted in a very explosive manner. He not only started swearing at those people but as directed by Birbal, threw stones at them and kept calling them bad names.

Soon, the crowd started gathering as a result of this sudden burst of angry shouts. It appeared to everyone that the Brahmin got irritated by this very term, Pandit, and thus they started calling him the same to tease him. Within few days the whole city had started to call him Pandit, without even realizing the wit behind it. As a result, the foolish Brahmin became extremely delighted and thanked Birbal again and again for his generosity and intelligence.