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?

I have holes on the top and bottom. I have holes on my left and on my right. And I have holes in the middle, yet I still hold water. What am I?

Can you find the odd number in the following?

2716, 4135, 5321 and 7145

How can you take 2 from 5 and leave 4?

Alex is stranded on an island covered in forest.
One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process.

There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off.

How can the Alex survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire)

John has played 50 ODI's and his average is 50. How many runs should he score in his 51st ODI, so that his average score jumps to 51?

Jim has three close friends at his school: Michael, John and Alice. Two of them play football, two play basketball and two play hockey. The friend who does not play hockey does not play basketball as well. The friend who does not play football does not play hockey.

Can you identify which sport/s is played by which person?

The following alphametic has only one solution. Can you find it?
ENLIST + SILENT + LISTEN = ANAGRAM

PS: You may start the number from 0.

What four weights can be used to balance from 1 to 30 pounds?

What jumps when it walks and sits when it stands?