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

An exterior architect is asked by a builder to plant seven trees in a manner that there are exactly six rows of trees in a straight line and each row has three trees in particular.

How will he do it?

Math Figure Puzzle

Asked by Neha on 03 Apr 2023


What will you call your mother's brother's brother-in-law?

Asked by Neha on 15 Jul 2024

Teacher ask the student

'Why are you standing on that chair in music class ?'.

what did student replied ?

Asked by Neha on 10 Jan 2021


Can you find out a way through which you can make five squares out of the given figure by moving just six match sticks?

Matchstick Game

Asked by Neha on 01 Apr 2025

A large water tank has two inlet pipes (a large one and a small one) and one outlet pipe. It takes 3 hours to fill the tank with the large inlet pipe. On the other hand, it takes 6 hours to fill the tank with the small inlet pipe. The outlet pipe allows the full tank to be emptied in 9 hours.

What fraction of the tank (initially empty) will be filled in 0.64 hours if all three pipes are in operation? Give your answer to two decimal places (e.g., 0.25, 0.5, or 0.75).

Asked by Neha on 08 Jan 2026

John was born on March 5, 1970, in Delhi, India. Jacob was born 25 days before John. The year when they took birth, Republic Day fell on Monday.

Can you find out on what day was Jacob born?

Asked by Neha on 24 Dec 2023


There are seven sisters in a house in a village where there is no electricity or any gadget.

Sister-1: Reading Novel
Sister-2: Cooking
Sister-3: Playing Chess
Sister-4: Playing Sudoku
Sister-5: Washing clothes
Sister-6: Gardening

what is Sister-7 doing ?

Asked by Neha on 26 Jan 2025

John is selling fruits.
He sells grapes at $30, Dates $25, and a Wolfberry $45.
At what price does he sell fig?

PS: Logical Thinking

Asked by Neha on 01 Jul 2023

What has hands, but can’t clap?

Asked by Neha on 21 Feb 2022


How can you throw a ball as hard as you can and have it come back to you even if it doesn't hit anything there is nothing attached to it and no one else catches or throws it.

Asked by Neha on 06 Nov 2025

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.