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

A mile-long train is moving at sixty miles an hour when it reaches a mile-long tunnel. How long does it take the entire train to pass through the tunnel?

Asked by Neha on 27 Apr 2022


The two towns are exactly 100 km apart. John leaves City A driving at 30 km/hr and Jacob leaves City B half an hour later driving at 60 km/hr. Who will be closer to City A when they meet?

Asked by Neha on 11 Nov 2024

Can you find the next number in the below sequence
3 , 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 17 ?

Asked by Neha on 04 Mar 2025


On 26-01-2022, Juli was murdered at her house in a city in India in the afternoon. There were three suspects in the murder and the following are the statements that were given by them:

John: I visited my village that day.
Jacob: I was out to deposit my house tax in the municipality office at that time.
Jonny: I was at a friend's place having lunch at that time.

Can you find out who is the murderer?

Asked by Neha on 15 Dec 2023

Count The number of F's in the paragraph below:

"FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS"

Test your Eye

Asked by Neha on 25 Mar 2021

A guy in his thirties is found dead in a forest. The shocking thing about the body is that he is wearing his swimming trunks snorkel and a facemask.

For your information, the nearest lake is some 10 miles away and the sea is hundreds of miles away.

How did he die then?

Asked by Neha on 15 Oct 2025


How many triangles can you count in the figure given?

How Many Triangles Puzzle

Asked by Neha on 06 Dec 2025

Below, you will find the mathematical proof that 10 equals 9.99999?. But is that possible or there is something wrong about it? Can you find the error?

x = 9.999999...
10x = 99.999999...
10x - x = 90
9x = 90
x = 10

Asked by Neha on 27 Aug 2021

A little girl goes to the store and buys one dozen eggs. As she is going home, all but three break. How many eggs are left unbroken?

Asked by Neha on 02 Mar 2022


There is a five-letter word which has 3 consonants(all are same) and 2 different vowels.
Also, something wrong is associated with the word.

Can you name it?

Asked by Neha on 08 Apr 2026

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Crossword

The day before the 1996 U.S. presidential election, the NYT Crossword contained the clue “Lead story in tomorrow’s newspaper,” the puzzle was built so that both electoral outcomes were correct answers, requiring 7 other clues to have dual responses.