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?

The average age of 10 members of a committee is the same as it was 4 years ago, because an old member has been replaced by a young member. Find how much younger is the new member ?

A monk has a very specific ritual for climbing up the steps to the temple. First, he climbs up to the middle step and meditates for 1 minute. Then he climbs up 8 steps and faces east until he hears a bird singing. Then he walks down 12 steps and picks up a pebble. He takes one step up and tosses the pebble over his left shoulder. Now, he walks up the remaining steps three at a time which only takes him 9 paces. How many steps are there?

I have thought of a number that is made up by using all the ten digits just once. Here are a few clues for you to guess my number:

First digits is divisible by 1.
First two digits are divisible by 2.
First three digits are divisible by 3.
First four digits are divisible by 4.
First five digits are divisible by 5.
First six digits are divisible by 6.
First seven digits are divisible by 7.
First eight digits are divisible by 8.
First nine digits are divisible by 9.
The number is divisible by 10.

Can you find out the number ?

You walk into a room and see a bed. On the bed, there are two dogs, five cats, a giraffe, six cows, and a goose. There are also three doves flying above the bed. How many legs are on the floor?

In a basket of apples,
when counted in twos, there was one extra
when counted in threes, there were two extra when counted in fours, there were three extra
when counted in fives, there were four extra
when counted in sixes, there was five extra.

However, if the apples were counted in sevens, no extra apple was left. Can you calculate the minimum number of apples that were present in the basket?

What's a single-digit number with no value?

Can you find out the remainder when 3^300 is divided by 5?

What seven-letter word has hundreds of letters in it?

In a contest, four fruits (an apple, a banana, an orange, and a pear) have been placed in four closed boxes (one fruit per box). People may guess which fruit is in which box. 123 people participate in the contest. When the boxes are opened, it turns out that 43 people have guessed none of the fruits correctly, 39 people have guessed one fruit correctly, and 31 people have guessed two fruits correctly.
How many people have guessed three fruits correctly, and how many people have guessed four fruits correctly