Make the Line Sorter

Birbal was jester, counsellor, and fool to the great Moghul emperor, Akbar.
The villagers loved to talk of Birbal's wisdom and cleverness,
and the emperor loved to try to outsmart him.
One day Akbar (emperor) drew a line across the floor.
"Birbal," he ordered, "you must make this line shorter, but you cannot erase any bit of it."
Everyone present thought the emperor had finally outsmarted Birbal.
It was clearly an impossible task.
Yet within moments the emperor and everyone else present had to agree that Birbal had made the line shorter without erasing any of it.
How could this be?




Similar Riddles

On one occasion, A Boy collects 71 rupees in form of 20 paise and 25 paise. He collects a total of 324 coins.

Can you tell me how many 20-paisa and 25-paisa he got?

Asked by Neha on 13 Jul 2024


Can you find out the total number of triangles in the given figure?

Triangle Angle

Asked by Neha on 12 Mar 2024

Tell me the Hindi name of a Vegetable which if we remove 1st word will become a precious Stone and by removing the last word it will become a sweet eatable.

Asked by Neha on 16 Apr 2025


Living above a star, I do not burn
Eleven friends and they do not turn
I can just be visited in a sequence, not once or repeatedly
PQRS are my initials
Can you tell my name accurately?

Asked by Neha on 11 Jul 2021

You walk into a room that contains a match, a kerosene lamp, a candle and a fireplace. What would you light first?

Asked by Neha on 12 Feb 2022

Out of three Friends John, Jacob and Jonny one of them is a king, one is a bureaucrat, and one is a Spy.

The king always tells the truth, the bureaucrat always lies, and the Spy can either lie or tell the truth.

John says: Jonny is a bureaucrat
Jacob says: John is a king
Jonny says: I am a Spy

Tell me, Who is the king, who is the bureaucrat, and who is the Spy?

Asked by Neha on 03 Feb 2024


Spelt forwards I’m what you do every day, spelled backwards I’m something you hate. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 26 Jul 2025

A new Engineering building containing 100 offices had just been completed. John was hired to paint the numbers 1 to 100 on the doors. How many times will John have to paint the number nine (9)?

Asked by Neha on 24 Feb 2024

John walks into the daily grocery shop and steals a $100 bill from the shop. An hour later John returns to the shop and buys some daily products for $40. John pays the owner the $100 bill and therefore the owner returns him $60.

How much money did the owner lose?

Asked by Neha on 02 Jun 2026


I have two sand hourglasses:
1. A 7 minute one and
2. An 11-minute one.

Using just these 2 sand hourglasses, how can I measure time as 15 minutes?

Asked by Neha on 29 May 2026

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Out of the Box

The phrase “thinking outside the box” was popularised from the solution to a topographical puzzle involving 9 dots in a box shape.