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

In the city of Brain Teasers, 5% of people do not list their phone numbers. Now if we select random 100 people from the phone directory, then how many people selected will have unlisted phone numbers?

Asked by Neha on 30 Oct 2023


What is red and smells like blue paint?

Asked by Neha on 22 Jul 2025

I’m tall when I’m young, and I’m short when I’m old. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 12 Feb 2022


The sum of a mother, her baby and her dog's weight is 170 Kg. How much does the baby weigh if the mother weighs 100 kg more than the combined weight of the baby and the dog, and the dog weighs 60 per cent less than the baby?

Asked by Neha on 01 Feb 2025

They do not possess flesh or feathers or scales or bone
But still, they are blessed with fingers and thumbs of their own.

Asked by Neha on 08 Nov 2023

What does below pictogram mean?

Compile the Pictogram

Asked by Neha on 11 Aug 2021


I have two coins.
* One of the coins is a faulty coin having a tail on both sides of it.
* The other coin is a perfect coin (heads on side and tail on other).

I blindfold myself and pick a coin and put the coin on the table. The face of the coin towards the sky is the tail.

What is the probability that another side is also tail?

Asked by Neha on 07 Jun 2023

If,
9 * 8 * 7 = 65
8 * 7 * 6 = 50
7 * 6 * 5 = 37

Find
6 * 5 * 4 = ?

Asked by Neha on 05 Jul 2024

While preparing the table for dinner, wife came up with an idea to tease his mathematician husband. She asked her husband to pick nine toothpicks and make ten without breaking any toothpick.

The husband was also smart and did it within seconds. How ?

Asked by Neha on 22 Dec 2020


We are a group of eight brothers. We consider the weak, yet we protect the king in every battle. If we move ahead, we never turn back. Who are we?

Asked by Neha on 15 Feb 2026

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Challenging

There is a cryptic organization called Cicada 3301 that posts challenging puzzles online, possibly to recruit codebreakers and linguists.