How many Crows in the Kingdom

One day Emperor Akbar and Birbal were taking a walk in the palace
gardens. It was a nice summer morning and there were plenty of
crows happily playing around the pond. While watching the crows, a
question came into Akbar's head. He wondered how many crows were
there in his kingdom.

Since Birbal was accompanying him, he asked Birbal this question.

After a moment's thought, Birbal replied, "There are ninety-five
thousand four hundred and sixty-three crows in the Kingdom".

Amazed by his quick response, Akbar tried to test him again, "What if
there are more crows than you answered?" Without hesitating Birbal
replied, "If there are more crows than my answer, then some crows
are visiting from other neighboring kingdoms". "And what if there are
less crows", Akbar asked. "Then some crows from our kingdom have
gone on holidays to other places".
 Krishna's Life in Gokul

The next morning in Gokul, the word spread that Nanda had a little
boy and he was named Krishna. Now kansa knew that his would be
slayer was still alive and was in Gokul, so he summoned a wicked
demoness name Putana. He ordered Putana to go to Gokul and kill
every baby born in the month of Shravan. Now Putana using her magic
turned into a beautiful woman, she then applied poison on her breasts.

In Gokul she then searched for all the babies of the right age. She
would act as if she was playing with them and then she would nurse
them with her poisoned breasts. In this way, she killed many babies.
Finally she came to Nanda's house and found baby Krishna there. She
acted as if she was playing with the child, and then she picked him up
and started to feed him. Now baby Krishna being divine, instead of
succumbing to her evil ways, sucked the life out of her.

Krishna grew up a playful, mischievous child. He grew up amongst the

cowherds of Gokul and even came in contact with his brother Balrama.
Another miracle Krishna performed as a teenager was the taming of
Kaliya. Kaliya was a poisonous snake with many heads, and inhabited
a lake in Gokul. Kaliya would devour any cow that would drink from
the lake. Krishna, angered by this, took a vow to tame Kaliya. He
jumped into the lake and fought Kaliya. Alarmed by this, his friends
ran to the village and informed his parents. Upon returning to the lake
they found pools of blood on the surface of the lake. They though that
surely Krishna was dead. After a while, the many headed Kaliya rose
to the surface with Krishna dancing on top of him. Kaliya was tamed.
Krishna then ordered Kaliya to leave the lake and the inhabitants of
Gokul alone.

The people of Gokul used to worship Indra, the arrogant King of the
devas, more out of fear than of love of him. Krishna thought that this
was wrong. He said that they should instead worship the Mountain
Govardhana (Gokul was on the foothills of this mountain) who had
given them so much. The people started to worship Govardhana, this
made Indra really angry. Indra, in order to punish them for their
insolence, sent storms their way. It rained for many days and Gokul
was flooded. The people of Gokul approached Krishna for help. Krishna
lifted the entire mountain Govardhana with his little finger and gave
shelter to the people of Gokul under it.
 The Monkey and the Crocodile
Once upon a time, a clever monkey lived in a tree that bore juicy, red rose apples.
He was very happy.

One fine day, a crocodile swam up to that tree and told the monkey that he had
travelled a long distance and was in search of food as he was very hungry. The kind
monkey offered him a few rose apples. The crocodile enjoyed them very much and
asked the monkey whether he could come again for some more fruit. The generous
monkey happily agreed.

The crocodile returned the next day. And the next. And the next one after that. Soon
the two became very good friends. They discussed their lives, their friends and
family, like all friends do. The crocodile told the monkey that he had a wife and that
they lived on the other side of the river. So the kind monkey offered him some extra
rose apples to take home to his wife. The crocodile's wife loved the rose apples and
made her husband promise to get her some every day.

Meanwhile, the friendship between the monkey and the crocodile deepened as they
spent more and more time together. The crocodile's wife started getting jealous. She
wanted to put an end to this friendship. So she pretended that she could not believe
that her husband could be friends with a monkey. Her husband tried to convince her
that he and the monkey shared a true friendship. The crocodile's wife thought to
herself that if the monkey lived on a diet of rose monkeys, his flesh would be very
sweet. So she asked the crocodile to invite the monkey to their house.

The crocodile was not happy about this. He tried to make the excuse that it would be
difficult to get the monkey across the river. But his wife was determined to eat the
monkey's flesh. So she thought of a plan.

One day, she pretended to be very ill and told the crocodile that the doctor said that
she would only recover if she ate a monkey's heart. If her husband wanted to save
her life, he must bring her his friend's heart.

The crocodile was aghast. He was in a dilemma. On the one hand, he loved his
friend. On the other, he could not possibly let his wife die. The crocodile's wife
threatened him saying that if he did not get her the monkey's heart, she would
surely die.

So the crocodile went to the rose apple tree and invited the monkey to come home
to meet his wife. He told the monkey that he could ride across the river on the
crocodile's back. The monkey happily agreed. As they reached the middle of the
river, the crocodile began to sink. The frightened monkey asked him why he was
doing that. The crocodile explained that he would have to kill the monkey to save his
wife's life. The clever monkey told him that he would gladly give up his heart to save
the life of the crocodile's wife, but he had left his heart behind in the rose apple tree.
He asked the crocodile to make haste and turn back so that the monkey could go get
his heart from the apple tree.

The silly crocodile quickly swam back to the rose apple tree. The monkey scampered
up the tree to safety. He told the crocodile to tell his wicked wife that she had
married the biggest fool in the world.
 Who Are Donkeys?

One fine day, Akbar, accompanied by his two sons and his clever
Minister Birbal, went to the river to take a bath.

They asked Birbal to hold their clothes while they were bathing and
took off their clothes and stepped into the river.

Birbal stood at the bank of the river, waiting for them, with their
clothes on his shoulder. Looking at Birbal standing like this, Akbar felt
like teasing him and remarked that Birbal looked like a washerman's
donkey with a load of clothes.

Birbal quickly retorted that he was carrying the load of not just one
donkey, but actually three.

The emperor was speechless.

 The Big Lion and the Little Rabbit

Once upon a time, there lived a big lion in a jungle. Every day he hunted and killed
many animals to satisfy his hunger. The animals were worried that one day none of
them would be left alive. They all decided to go to the lion and find a solution to this
problem.

When the lion saw all the animals approaching, he was very happy as he thought
that he would not have to take the trouble to hunt. He could just kill all the animals
together once and for all.

One of the animals stopped him and pleaded that he listen to what they had to say
first. He went on to explain that as the lion was king of the jungle, and all the other
animals were his subjects, the lion would not be a king at all if he killed all his
subjects. He would have no one left to rule over. He suggested that if the lion stayed
home, one animal would surrender itself each day as food for the lion. The lion
agreed to this offer on the condition that if they ever failed to send him an animal,
he would go on a killing spree and finish all of them off.

From then on, each day an animal was sent to the lion and the lion was pleased.

One day it was the turn of a little rabbit to sacrifice his life to provide food for the
lion. This little one did not want to be the lion's meal. He thought of a plan that
would save his life as well as the lives of all the other animals in the jungle.

The rabbit slowly made his way to the lion's den. The lion was pacing up and down,
extremely hungry. He was furious when all he saw was a little rabbit. He wanted to
kill all the animals in a rage. The rabbit timidly explained that the animals had
actually sent him six rabbits, but five of them were killed and devoured by another
lion.

The lion roared in anger. He wanted to know who this other lion was who dared to
steal his food. The rabbit stuttered that it was a very big lion. He had warned the
other lion not to eat him as his king would be very angry and definitely come to fight
him. The rabbit went on to say that that the other lion had called His Majesty an
impostor and had challenged him to prove who was actually the king of the jungle.
The lion was furious. He asked the rabbit to take him to the other lion as he wanted
to kill him.

The little rabbit led the lion to a well and told him that the other lion was in there.
The lion peered into the well and saw his own reflection. He thought it was the other
lion. He let out a huge roar which echoed back at him. He immediately jumped into
the well to attack what he thought was the other lion. The lion dashed his head
against the rocks and drowned.

The jubilant little rabbit returned to other animals to spread the good news.