Once it so happened that there was an oil merchant. When the villagers came to buy oil from him he gave them the oil and collected money from them. One day he and a villager come to the court, both fighting for a bag of money. Each claimed that the bag belonged to him.
The merchant said that it was his bag, when he turned to give the customer his oil, he pulled the bag from him and started fighting. The villager said it was his bag, when he was looking at some other things he placed it in front of the merchant and the merchant started to claim it.
Everybody in the court was surprised and was waiting eagerly how Akbar would solve this problem.
Akbar asked Birbal to solve this case. Birbal asked a servant to get some water in a bowl. The servant brought the water. He then placed the bag in the bowl. After sometime everybody saw some oily substance floating on water. Birbal told that the bag belonged to the oil merchant not to the villager.
Everybody praised Birbal and the customer was punished.