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

Four cars come to a four-way stop, each coming from a different direction. They can’t decide who got there first, so they all go forward at the same time. All 4 cars go, but none crash into each other. How is this possible?

Asked by Neha on 11 Aug 2025


Why is it very easy to weigh a fish?

One Line Funny Riddle

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2024

What is the fastest way to double your money?

Asked by Neha on 12 Feb 2023


Find a 9-digit number, which you will gradually round off starting with units, then tenth, hundred etc., until you get to the last numeral, which you do not round off. The rounding alternates (up, down, up ...). After rounding off 8 times, the final number is 500000000. The original number is commensurable by 6 and 7, all the numbers from 1 to 9 are used, and after rounding four times the sum of the not rounded numerals equals 24.

Asked by Neha on 01 Sep 2021

There is a hypothetical state between the USA and Mexico border 'Tango'.
Here 70 percent of the population have defective eyesight, 75 percent are hard of hearing, 80 percent have Nose trouble and 85 percent suffer from allergies, what percentage (at a minimum) suffer from all four ailments?

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2024

How many triangles can you find in this given picture?

Count the Triangles

Asked by Neha on 27 Feb 2023


A man always keeps a spare tyre in his car. To make full use of all the five tyres, he changes the tyres in a manner that for a distance of 1, 00,000 km, each of them runs the same distance.

Can you calculate the distance travelled by each tyre on that journey?

Asked by Neha on 14 Sep 2023

A man and his wife were doing missionary work near the city of Nairobi in the country of Kenya in eastern Africa. Their housing had not yet been completed, so the man, the woman, and their six year old daughter were spending a few nights in the jungle in three small pup tents. During their third night there, the woman was awakened by the call of a hyena passing by, so she got out of her tent to see if her young daughter had been frightened by the noise. As she peered into her daughter's tent she was surprised to see the dark figures of lion, a panther, and a cheetah which were curled up next to her daughter. Seeing her daughter was asleep and unharmed, the woman slowly and quietly withdrew from the tent, and simply returned to her own tent and went back to bed. How could this child's mother leave her daughter in such a dangerous situation, and simply ignore what she had just witnessed without intervening in some way? How can such emotional coldness ever be explained; or is there something here we are missing?

Asked by Neha on 04 Apr 2022

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


There is an ancient kingdom where every married woman keeps information regarding the fidelity of other men. However, what they don't know is the fidelity of their own husbands. Also, there is an ancient belief that they don't tell each other about the fidelity of their husbands.

On a certain day, the queen of the kingdom declares that she has identified at least one unfaithful man in the kingdom. She allows the wives to identify and gives them authority to kill their husbands if they are unfaithful at midnight.

How will the wives manage it?

Asked by Neha on 03 Oct 2023

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Rubik’s Cube

The inventor of the Rubik’s Cube didn’t realize he’d built a puzzle until he scrambled it the first time and tried to restore it.