Mughal Administration c13.s2.6

c13.s2.6

“In Shah Jahan’s time a soldier went to his pay and the official could not attend to him once as he was busy. The angry soldier threatened him at once saying he should have to smash his teeth with his sword. The official said nothing, and paid him......The sharp-witted scribe, to get his revenge for the menace, wrote in the book where was entered the soldier’s descriptive roll that he had lost two of his front teeth......Some months elapsed and the soldier appeared again for his pay. The clerk opened the book, and found by the description that he was not the man entitled to that pay, for he had two front teeth more than were recorded in the descriptive rolls. The soldier was put to confusion ......he was obliged to have two front teeth extracted to agree with the record, and in that way got his pay.” (*Storia*, ii. 449.)