5
At a feast, Birbal praised every dish but complained gently that there was no salt—revealing who had skimmed the kitchen budget.
The palace cook had been watering gravies and cutting corners. Birbal tasted everything and sighed that he missed salt. The cook protested that salt was rare and costly, revealing his theft to a room that knew the treasury’s accounts. The emperor smiled sadly and sent the cook to a village where food was plain and lessons were not.
