The Well That Belonged to No One

A rich landowner, needing quick money, sold his old well to a poor neighbor for a fair price, and the sale was recorded properly before witnesses. Some weeks later, greedy for more, the rich man returned and demanded payment for the water inside the well too, arguing craftily that he had sold only the well itself — the empty stone structure — not the water that happened to fill it.

The poor man, unable to afford another payment nor willing to be cheated, brought the dispute to Birbal.

Birbal summoned both men and ruled with a straight face: "The well now belongs entirely to this poor man, as recorded. Since you claim the water inside is still yours, you must remove every drop of it from his property immediately — but you may not enter his well to do so, since that too now belongs to him." Cornered by his own greedy logic, the rich man had no way to remove water he could not legally reach, and was forced to admit before the whole gathering that the water, like everything else inside the well, had always belonged to its rightful new owner.