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 my garden, I have many trees but only one of them is the mango tree. In these mango trees, there are some mangoes(as expected).

But after a strong wind, there are neither mangoes on the tree nor on the ground. Explain?

Asked by Neha on 16 May 2024


A man hijacks an aeroplane transporting both passengers(8 of them) and valuable cargo. After taking the cargo, the man demands nine parachutes, puts one of them on, and jumps, leaving the other eight behind. Why did he want eight?

Aeroplane Hijack Riddle

Asked by Neha on 02 Apr 2021

What occurs twice in a week, once in a year but never in a day?

Asked by Neha on 27 Dec 2020


What will you call your mother's brother's brother-in-law?

Asked by Neha on 15 Jul 2024

What does man love more than life, hate more than death or mortal strife; That which contented men desire; the poor have, the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?

Asked by Neha on 15 Mar 2025

What Deficiency does the below rebus represent?

VIT_MIN

Asked by Neha on 09 Jun 2024


I cannot talk, but I always reply when spoken to. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 17 Aug 2025

What does this rebus picture identify?

Rebus Picture Riddle

Asked by Neha on 22 May 2026

From a pack of 52 cards, I placed 4 cards on the table.

I will give you 4 clues about the cards:

Clue 1: Card on left cannot be greater than the card on the right.
Clue 2: Difference between the 1st card and 3rd card is 8.
Clue 3: There is no card of an ace.
Clue 4: There are no face cards (queen, king, jacks).
Clue 5: Difference between the 2nd card and 4th card is 7.

Identify four cards?

Asked by Neha on 24 Aug 2021


I never stop running even when I standstill. If I am formed by joining two identical bodies together, can you guess who I am?

Asked by Neha on 28 Mar 2023

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.