Akbar's Three Questions: Akbar and Birbal Story with Moral
Quick answer: Akbar's Three Questions retold in full: how many stars, where the earth's centre lies, how many men and women. Birbal's answers, the moral, and classroom notes.
Jealous courtiers persuade the emperor to test his favourite with three questions nobody can answer: the number of stars in the sky, the exact centre of the earth, and the count of men and women in the world. Birbal arrives with a sheep and an iron rod, and the third answer is aimed straight at the men who set the trap.
The story
The courtiers had been working on Akbar for weeks. Birbal, they said, was clever with pots and crows, but real wisdom was another matter; let the emperor ask him three questions worthy of a scholar. They supplied the questions, and Akbar put them to Birbal at the morning durbar in front of everyone. How many stars are in the sky? Where is the centre of the earth? How many men and how many women are there in the world? Birbal asked for a day, and the courtiers exchanged glances.
He came back the next morning leading a sheep on a rope and carrying an iron stake and a hammer. "Your Majesty's first question," he said, "was the number of stars. It is exactly the number of hairs on this sheep. If any learned man doubts it, let him count both and show me the difference."
"The second question was the centre of the earth." He walked to a spot on the courtyard floor, set the stake, and drove it in with three blows. "There. I have measured it. Any man who thinks I am wrong may bring his measuring rope and show me by how much." The courtiers studied the ceiling.
"The third question," said Birbal, "is the hard one. How many men and women are there in the world? I have found that the count is impossible, Jahanpanah, because there is a third kind of creature that is neither, and they get in the way of the tally." He turned and looked, slowly and courteously, along the row of courtiers who had supplied the questions. "If Your Majesty would be good enough to have them removed from the world, I could give you an exact figure by evening." The emperor looked at the sheep, and at the stake, and at the faces of his advisers, and gave a shout of laughter that the sheep did not appreciate. The questions were not asked again.
The wit, and what it exposes
The moral usually drawn is that a foolish question deserves a foolish answer. But the three answers are not the same kind of joke. The first two are unfalsifiable, like the crows of Agra: they meet impossibility with impossibility. The third is a weapon. It exposes the men who staged the test, and it does so in a form Akbar cannot punish, because it is technically an answer. Birbal has turned an examination into an indictment without raising his voice.
Where it comes from, and why it lasts
The three-questions frame is old and travels widely; the folk tradition attached it to Birbal, the historical Mahesh Das who died in Akbar's service in 1586. Nothing in the Mughal chronicles records a sheep in the durbar.
It lasts because of the escalation. Two absurd answers lull the room, and the third strikes.
For young readers and classrooms
Eight and up.
Write your own
The engine is a rigged test turned on the riggers, built in three beats: two answers that disarm, one that strikes. Give the trap authors in the room, and let your character save the real blow for last. A story shaped like this tends to land its ending hard, which is what a judge scoring for impact looks for in a contest entry.
What writers can take from this
- For exams, distinguish the two absurd answers from the third pointed one.
- Name the courtiers as the true antagonists; Akbar is only the instrument.
- Writers, use the rule of three: two decoys, one hit.
- Give the props (sheep, stake) real weight in the scene; comedy is physical.
- Keep the clever character polite; the insult lives in the logic, not the tone.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which a character is examined with three impossible questions in public. Let the first two answers be jokes and the third answer name who wrote the questions.
Questions
What were Akbar's three questions to Birbal?
How many stars are in the sky, where is the centre of the earth, and how many men and women are in the world. Birbal answered with a sheep's hairs, an iron stake, and a remark about courtiers who are neither.
What is the moral of Akbar's Three Questions?
Absurd questions deserve absurd answers, and those who set traps for others are often caught in them. Birbal's third answer exposes the jealous courtiers who devised the test.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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