The Pot That Wouldn’t Boil Milk

Birbal proved a neighbor’s lie by making an empty pot fail to give milk to an equally impossible baby pot.

A neighbor claimed Birbal’s borrowed pot had ‘died after childbirth’ and demanded payment for its loss. Next day Birbal returned to borrow a larger vessel, promising to feed it milk from the baby pot it had birthed. When the neighbor scoffed that empty pots make no milk, Birbal bowed: then surely they cannot have babies either. The pot was returned, and so was the neighborhood’s balance.