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

'Ferrari driver' easily beats the 'force driver' in a two-car race. How did Indian newspapers truthfully report so to look as a 'force drive' had outdone the 'Ferrari driver'? Think!!!

Asked by Neha on 22 Nov 2024


A man embarked on a questionnaire game. He kept asking the same question to whomever he found. The answer each time was different.

Can you guess what the question was?

Asked by Neha on 22 Apr 2023

What is the largest amount of money that you can possess in change and still if someone asks you for a dollar, you won't be able to give?

Asked by Neha on 07 Jan 2025


Tarang football website was hacked by one of the players. Jack, the coach of Tarang has pointed out five players as the possible hacker.
Each suspected player made three statements from each suspected player and out of which two are true and one is false.

Joseph
A) I have not hacked the website.
B) I know nothing about hacking.
C) John did it.

Hazard
A) I have not hacked the website.
B) The website was attacked by one of the players.
C) I hate Shelly

Remy
A) I have not hacked the website.
B) I have never seen Oscar in my entire life.
C) I am sure John did it.

John
A) I have not hacked the website.
B) I am sure Oscar did it.
C) Joseph was lying when he said he did it.

Oscar
A) I have not hacked the website.
B) I am sure Hazard did it.
C) I used to be friend with Remy.

So who hacked the website?

Asked by Neha on 27 Jun 2021

If you drop me I’m sure to crack, but give me a smile and I’ll always smile back. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 07 Mar 2025

A girl is twice as old as her brother and half as old as her father. In 50 years, her brother will be half as old as his father. How old is the daughter now?

Asked by Neha on 21 Jan 2023


Three people are in a room. Ronni looks at the Nile. The Nile looks at Senthil. Ronni is married but Senthil is not married. At any point, is a married person looking at an unmarried person? Yes, No or Cannot be determined.

Asked by Neha on 01 Nov 2023

One fine day, an intellectual man came to the emperor's court with the aim of testing Birbal's wittiness. In order to do this, he challenged Birbal to answer his question and hence prove that he was as intelligent and witty as he was said to be.
He asked Birbal, Do you want me to ask one difficult question or a hundred easy ones?
Since both Akbar and Birbal had had a tough day and were eager to leave, Birbal hastily told the intellectual to ask him a single difficult question.
Intellectual: OK. Tell me what came first into the world, the egg or the chicken?
Of course, the chicken, Birbal replied with a smile.
This time with a note of victory in his voice, the intellectual asked Birbal, How will you demonstrate that?
What did Birbal say?

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2021

In particular commonwealth games, a female participant won silver and gold medals for a single event.

How can this be possible?

Asked by Neha on 26 Feb 2024


People are waiting in line to board a 100-seat aeroplane. Steve is the first person in the line. He gets on the plane but suddenly can't remember what his seat number is, so he picks a seat at random. After that, each person who gets on the plane sits in their assigned seat if it's available, otherwise, they will choose an open seat at random to sit in. The flight is full and you are last in line. What is the probability that you get to sit in your assigned seat?

Asked by Neha on 13 Mar 2024

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.