The Oil on the Coins

Two men burst into the court one afternoon, both shouting at once and both pulling at the same small cloth bag.

“Your Majesty, this man stole my money!”

“Lies! It’s my money, and he’s trying to steal it!”

The Emperor raised his hand for silence. “One at a time. You first.”

The first man was an oil seller. His clothes were shiny with oil, and he smelled of mustard seeds. “Your Majesty, I sell oil in the market. This butcher came to my stall this morning to buy some. While I was pouring it for him, he snatched my bag of coins and ran.”

The second man was a butcher. “That’s not true! I went to buy oil, and while I was paying, this oil seller grabbed my purse and claimed it was his. These are the coins I earned this week, selling meat.”

They both glared at each other. There were no witnesses. The coins themselves were just coins, and they looked the same whoever they belonged to.

The Emperor turned to Birbal. “Well? How can anyone tell whose coins these are?”

Birbal asked for a large bowl of clean water to be brought. Then he emptied the bag of coins into it, and everyone leaned forward to watch.

After a moment, a thin, shimmering film began to spread across the surface of the water, catching the light in rainbow colours. Little drops of oil floated up from the coins and gathered on top.

“Look,” said Birbal. “These coins have been handled every day by someone whose hands are covered in oil. If they belonged to the butcher, there would be no oil on them at all. These are the oil seller’s coins.”

The butcher’s face went red. Then he hung his head and admitted that he had tried to steal the money when he saw the oil seller looking the other way.

The oil seller got his coins back, a little wetter but otherwise none the worse. The butcher was fined twice the amount he had tried to steal. And the Emperor laughed and said that from now on, if anyone tried to cheat Birbal, the truth would float to the top, just like oil on water.