Sherlock Holmes was challenged to make a pre-drawn line smaller without erasing it. He did it in fractions of seconds. How?

Can you place six X (crosses) in below board without making three in a row in any way ?

In the picture given below, can you find out which digit will take place of the question mark?

We are a group of eight brothers. We consider the weak, yet we protect the king in every battle. If we move ahead, we never turn back. Who are we?

I am the largest in my family of fifty.
The youngest of our family lives separately from the rest of the family and so do I.
I am regarded as harsh and tough.
I am so large, you cut me in two equal halves,
each half would still be larger than the second largest member of the family.
Who am I?

There is a box full of marbles,
all but two are blue,
all but two are green,
and all but two are red.

How many marbles are in the box?

A boy and his father are caught in a traffic accident, and the father dies. Immediately the boy is rushed to a hospital, suffering from injuries. But the attending surgeon at the hospital, upon seeing the boy, says 'I cannot operate. This boy is my son.' How is this situation explained?

You can take four of the five letters out of this word, but the pronunciation never changes. What is the word?

I am green and found in the forest and have needles instead of leaves. What am I?
Hint 1: It can be used for Christmas decorations.
Hint 2: I have a strong, scent that is used in air fresheners.

One day, all the courtiers from Akbar's court were gathered in the assembly hall when one of them told the Emperor that all his valuables had been stolen by a thief the previous night.
This shocked the Emperor to his core as the place where that courter stayed was the most secured in the kingdom. The Emperor thought that it is not at all possible for an outsider to enter into the courtier's house and steal the valuables. Only another courtier could commit this crime. He quickly called Birbal to identify the thief.
Birbal thought for a while and successfully solved the mystery by identifying the thief in just one statement.
What did Birbal say?