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

Find the number of squares in the below-given picture.

Count The Number Of Squares

Asked by Neha on 04 Jun 2023


Find the next number in the sequence

1, 2, 6, 21, 88, __?

Asked by Neha on 14 Mar 2024

When it is alive we sing, when it is dead we clap our hands. What is it?

Asked by Neha on 22 Aug 2025


You have 10 balls with you. A friend of yours out of nowhere asks you to place those ten balls in five lines such that each of the lines has exactly 4 balls on them. He needs to check your intelligence. Prove him by doing the task.

Asked by Neha on 17 Mar 2023

Three friends decide to distribute the soda cans they had among them. When all of them had drunk four cans each, the total number of cans that remained was equal to the cans each one of them had after they had divided the cans.

Can you calculate the total number of cans before distribution?

Asked by Neha on 12 May 2025

What brings you down but never up?

Asked by Neha on 22 Oct 2021


How many times do a clock's hands overlap in a day ?

Clock Hand Overlapping

Asked by Neha on 31 Mar 2021

How can a man go eight days without sleep?

Asked by Neha on 11 Mar 2024

In front of you, there are 9 coins. They all look absolutely identical, but one of the coins is fake. However, you know that the fake coin is lighter than the rest, and in front of you is a balance scale. What is the least number of weightings you can use to find the counterfeit coin?

Asked by Neha on 20 Nov 2025


Below toothpicks/matchsticks indicate the group of fishes moving from west to east direction. Can you make them move from east to west by just moving three toothpicks/matchsticks?


Floating Fish

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2021

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Word ladder puzzle

The word ladder puzzle was invented by Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.