The Stick That Grew

3-4 min read
10 pages

The stick that grew, an Akbar and Birbal story to read aloud. A necklace is stolen, and Birbal gives every servant a stick of the same length.

A gold necklace went missing from a merchant's house, and it could only have been one of the six servants, and none of the six would say a word.

The merchant beat them and got nothing. Then he went to Birbal.

Birbal came to the house and had all six brought in, and he was perfectly friendly about it.

«This is not difficult,» he said. «I am going to give each of you a stick. Every stick is exactly the same length — measure them if you like.»

They measured them. They were the same.

«Take your stick home tonight,» said Birbal, «and sleep with it beside you. By morning, the stick belonging to the thief will have grown one finger's width longer. Bring them all back at dawn.»

In the morning the six came back and laid their sticks on the floor.

Five of them were exactly as long as they had been. The sixth was shorter by a finger's width, because its owner had sat up in the night and cut a piece off the end so that it would not be seen to have grown.

Birbal picked that one up and turned it over to show the fresh cut.

«Sticks do not grow,» he said. «But a man who believes they might will always trim his own.»

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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 Stick That Grew

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