The mango tree
Reading time aloud: about four minutes.
A story about how you find the truth when both sides are equally convincing — which is most of the time.
Two men came to court, and between them stood a mango tree.
Each said he had planted it. Each said he had watered it through three summers. Each had neighbours who would swear to it, and each spoke with the particular heat of a man who believes he is being robbed.
The court listened all morning and got no further.
Birbal heard them out, and then said: "This is simple. Both of you go home. Tomorrow we'll settle it — I'll send men tonight to cut the tree down and divide the wood between you. Half each. That's fair."
One of the men bowed and thanked him and went home satisfied.
The other stood absolutely still, and then said: "No. Don't cut it. If it has to go to him, let it go to him. But don't cut it down."
Birbal turned to the guards and pointed at the second man. "That one planted it. Give him the tree."
A liar wants the value. The person who actually grew it can't bear to see it destroyed — their claim is attachment, not arithmetic. It's the same logic as Solomon and the baby, and it works because it asks a question that only truth answers reflexively.
Sometimes the dispute is over a garden, or a well, or a cow. In the Solomon version the false claimant agrees to the child being divided, which is the darker telling of the same idea — and the two stories almost certainly travelled to each other at some point.
Last updated: 2026-08-11
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