One day a man stopped Birbal on the street and began narrating his woes to him. 'I've walked twenty miles to see you, and all along the way people kept saying you were the most generous man in the country,' he told Birbal. Birbal knew the man was going to ask him for a favour. He replied, 'While going back on the same way, please deny the rumour of my generosity,' said Birbal, walking away.