Akbar once told Birbal that he wanted to build a palace in the sky. Birbal replied, 'Your Majesty, first we need to build a staircase that reaches the sky. Then we can start building the palace. And we will need very long and strong materials for the staircase.' Akbar realized the impracticality of his idea and praised Birbal for his sensible response.
There was a time when Akbar lost his ring. He suspected his servants. Birbal came and said he knew who had the ring. He called all the servants together and said, 'The ring is with a thief. And the thief has a straw in his nose.' All the servants started looking at each other's noses. One servant unconsciously touched his nose. Birbal pointed at him and said he was the thief. It turned out he was right.