It was a slow day at the royal court. The petitions were finished, the reports were read, and Emperor Akbar was in the mood for a game. He loved nothing better than a riddle that made his clever courtiers scratch their heads — especially one that might, just once, stump the unstumpable Birbal.
Akbar picked up a piece of chalk, walked to the marble floor before the throne, and drew a long, straight line. The court watched in curious silence. The emperor dusted his hands and smiled at the assembly.
“Here is my challenge,” he announced. “Make this line shorter. But listen carefully — you may not erase any part of it, you may not rub it, you may not touch it, and you may not cut the floor. The line must remain exactly as it is — and yet it must become shorter. Who will try?”
The courtiers stared at the line as if staring might shrink it. One minister walked around it twice. Another bent down and squinted at it from the side. A third suggested covering part of it with a carpet — “That is hiding, not shortening,” said Akbar. A fourth wondered if the line might look shorter from the far end of the hall — “Looking is not making,” said the emperor, enjoying himself thoroughly. One by one, the wisest heads of Agra gave up. “It cannot be done, Your Majesty. To shorten a line, one must erase at least some of it.”
All this while Birbal stood quietly, arms folded, a small smile playing on his lips. “And you, Birbal?” asked Akbar. “Will you also tell me it is impossible?”
Birbal said nothing. He walked forward, picked up the chalk from the emperor's hand, and knelt on the marble. Right beside Akbar's line, he drew another line — bold, straight, and much longer.
Then he stood up. “It is done, huzoor. Look — your line has become the shorter one. And I never touched it.”
The court gasped, then broke into applause. Akbar looked from one line to the other and laughed in delight. “Wonderful, Birbal! You changed nothing, yet you changed everything.” And ever after, in that court, whenever someone boasted, the old ministers would wink and whisper, “Careful — someone may draw a longer line beside yours.”