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

I shave every day, but my beard stays the same. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 12 Feb 2022


The answer I give is yes, but what I mean is no. What was the question?

Asked by Neha on 04 Sep 2025

What can go up a chimney down, but can’t go down a chimney up?

Asked by Neha on 12 Jul 2025


Can you spot what's wrong with the following sentence?

PETER WAS ANGRY AT
HIMSELF BECAUSE HE
ACCIDENTALLY LEFT THE
THE KEYS TO HIS CAR
AT HIS FRIEND'S HOUSE.

Asked by Neha on 03 May 2022

How many people must be gathered together in a room, before you can be certain that there is a greater than 50/50 chance that at least two of them have the same birthday?

Asked by Neha on 16 Dec 2023

Can you find a rabbit in the given picture?

Hidden Picture Riddle

Asked by Neha on 08 Apr 2023


Find the next number in the series.
1 10 24 43 67 ?

Asked by Neha on 26 Jun 2024

Always in you, Sometimes on you;

If I surround you, I can kill you.

What am I?

Asked by Neha on 09 Apr 2022

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


Find the next number in the following series:
6, 14, 26, 98, __?

Asked by Neha on 16 Feb 2026

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Gamers

In 2011, people playing Foldit, an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. The gamers solved it in three weeks.