Tenali Raman's Sweet Revenge

A rival minister, jealous of Tenali Raman's closeness to the king, seized on a small mistake in one of his verses and mocked him mercilessly in open court, calling him a fraud unworthy of his position and urging the king to dismiss him entirely.

Tenali Raman said nothing in his own defense that day, simply bowing and withdrawing quietly — which the rival took as a victory and boasted about for weeks afterward.

A month later, the king announced a grand poetry contest, judged anonymously, with a magnificent prize for the finest verse submitted. The rival minister, confident after his earlier "win," submitted his best work under a false name to appear humble. Tenali Raman did the same — but his anonymous verse was so masterful that the entire court, including the rival himself, praised it as the clear winner before the names were revealed.

When Tenali Raman's identity was announced, the rival's own words of praise for the verse were read back to him aloud, in front of the very same court where he had once mocked its author as a fraud. He had no way to take back what he'd already said, and the humiliation he had once dealt out returned to him in full, without Tenali Raman ever having to say an unkind word himself.