The Longest Line

2-3 min read
12 pages

The longest line, an Akbar and Birbal story to read aloud. Make this line shorter without touching it, says the emperor.

Akbar liked setting his court problems, mostly because he liked watching them fail at things Birbal could do.

One morning he drew a line on the wall with a piece of chalk — a good long line, at head height, straight across.

«Make this line shorter,» he said, «without rubbing out any part of it and without touching it at all.»

The court thought about it. One man suggested that everybody stand further away, so that the line would look smaller, and was told that looking smaller and being smaller are different things.

Another proposed cutting a piece out of the wall itself, which would certainly have shortened the line and would also have shortened his own career.

One man said it was impossible and that the emperor knew it was impossible, which is a dangerous thing to say out loud even when it is true.

One man said it was impossible and that the emperor knew perfectly well it was impossible, which is a dangerous thing to say out loud even when it happens to be true. Akbar looked at him for rather a long time.

He did not touch Akbar's line. He drew a second line underneath it, parallel to it, and made it a good deal longer.

Then he stepped back.

Akbar looked at the wall. The first line had not changed by a hair, and it was now unmistakably the shorter of the two.

«Nothing has been done to your line,» said Birbal. «It is exactly as long as it was. But nobody will ever call it long again while the other one is there.»

Akbar took the chalk back off him and put it in his sleeve, which was what he did when he had lost and did not wish to discuss it.

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Text source: Traditional Indian folk tale about the Mughal emperor Akbar (1542–1605) and his minister Birbal. Public domain. The text was written anew for Marytale — it is not a reprint of anyone else's version.

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The Longest Line

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