Gastrointestinal tuberculosis is difficult to diagnose since it mimics many other abdominal conditions and has protean manifestations. The disease can present as an abdominal mass, bowel perforation, Crohn''s disease and dysentery. These presentations are discussed with representative cases (human) to illustrate the diagnostic difficulties. To obviate the diagnostic pitfalls, tuberculosis should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of unusual gastrointestinal presentations particularly because radiological and laboratory tests may be noncontributory.