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

You measure my life in hours
I serve you by expiring
I vanish faster when I am thin
and slower when I am thick
The wind is my energy
What am I?

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2021


Two friends were stuck in a cottage. They had nothing to do and thus they started playing cards. Suddenly the power went off and Friend 1 inverted the position of 15 cards in the normal deck of 52 cards and shuffled it. Now he asked Friend 2 to divide the cards into two piles (need not be equal) with equal number of cards facing up. The room was quite dark and Friend 2 could not see the cards. He thinks for a while and then divides the cards in two piles.

On checking, the count of cards facing up is same in both the piles. How could Friend 2 have done it ?

Game with Cards

Asked by Neha on 02 Mar 2021

Baseball bat and ball cost $100. If the bat cost $99 more than the ball, what is the cost of each?

Asked by Neha on 23 May 2021


French Police inspects a room where there are no windows, no doors, no tables and is almost empty expect there is just a puddle of water. They found a dead man who obviously hung herself from the ceiling, but they are not able to figure out how this had happened.

John and Jacob entered the crime scene and easily able to solve the case.

How did the man die?

Asked by Neha on 09 Sep 2021

How can you tell a raw egg from a hard-boiled egg?

Asked by Neha on 09 Jan 2025

A man was just doing his job when his suit was torn. Why did he die three minutes later?

Asked by Neha on 15 Sep 2021


Can you solve the below algebraic mathematical equation?

(J+O+I+N+T)3 = JOINT

Asked by Neha on 29 May 2021

Joseph buys three kinds of chocolates for 100 rupees. The first one is priced at 5 rupees, second one at 3 rupees and third one at 0.5 rupees.

If he bought 100 chocolates in total, how many pieces do you think he bought each chocolate?

Asked by Neha on 04 Jan 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


Nine marbles are arranged in the image below. Can you slide two marbles to form a square?

Arrange The Marbles Puzzle

Asked by Neha on 23 Jan 2026

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Gambling

In Canada, a mathematical puzzle must be solved in order to win the lottery to classify it as a “game of skill” not gambling.