The Fisherman's Complaint

A poor fisherman came before Akbar with an unusual complaint: the new royal fish pond, stocked generously and never fished by anyone, meant that fish from the nearby river were increasingly drawn toward the pond's calmer waters and abundant food, leaving fewer fish for him to catch downstream where he had fished honestly for twenty years.

The court found the complaint almost comical — how could a man reasonably blame the king's own pond, built entirely on royal land, for his declining catch? Several courtiers urged Akbar to dismiss the fisherman for his impudence.

Birbal, however, asked the fisherman a clarifying question: had the royal pond's outflow channel ever been sealed to prevent river fish from entering it and never returning downstream? The fisherman confirmed it had not — fish swam freely in and never came back out, effectively trapped by the pond's abundance. Birbal explained to the king that while the pond itself was entirely his right to build, an open channel drawing away a shared resource without any provision for return was subtly unfair to those downstream who depended on it. Akbar, seeing the fairness in this framing, ordered a partial barrier installed allowing some fish to return to the river — a small, thoughtful adjustment that resolved the fisherman's genuine hardship without diminishing the royal pond at all.