Lateral thinking puzzles that challenge your preconceptions.
1. You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
Knowing
that there can only be one passenger in your car, whom would you choose?
Hint: You can make everyone happy. Your car can only contain one passenger, so whom should it be?
Solution: The old lady of course! After helping the old lady into the car, you can give your keys to your friend, and wait with your perfect partner for the bus.
2. Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How do they know they've got their man?
Hint: The police only know two things, that the criminal's name is John and that he is in a particular house.
Solution: The fireman is the only man in the room. The rest of the poker players are women.
3. A man lives in the penthouse of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. Upon his return, however, he can only travel halfway up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way - unless it's raining. What is the explanation for this?
Hint: He is very proud, so refuses to ever ask for help.
Solution: The man is a dwarf. He can't reach the upper elevator buttons, but he can ask people to push them for him. He can also push them with his umbrella.
4. How could a baby fall out of a twenty-story building onto the ground and live?
Hint: It does not matter what the baby lands on, and it has nothing to do with luck.
Solution: The baby fell out of a ground floor window.
5. Bad Boy Bubby was warned by his mother never to open the cellar door or he would see things that he was not meant to see. One day while his mother was out he did open the cellar door. What did he see?
Hint: His mother was an odd woman.
Solution: When Bad Boy Bubby opened the cellar door he saw the living room and, through its windows, the garden. He had never seen these before because his mother had kept him all his life in the cellar.
6. A man and his son are in a car crash. The father is killed and the child is taken to hospital gravely injured. When he gets there, the surgeon says, 'I can't operate on this boy - for he is my son!!!' How can this possibly be?
Hint: This has nothing to do with adoption or time travel.
Solution: The surgeon can not operate on her own son; she is his mother.
7. There are six eggs in the basket. Six people each take one of the eggs. How can it be that one egg is left in the basket?
Hint: A alternate version of the problem is...
Saradhi, Nick & Ted win a raffle contest. The prize is three hard boiled eggs in a basket. After discussing how to divide the prize, each take one egg. Nick & Ted get hungry and so eat their eggs. One of the original eggs is still left in original basket.
Solution: The last person took the basket with the last egg still inside.
8. A landlady allows students to rent her apartment for 7 days under a specific condition: the student must pay rent daily using her 7-link golden chain. However, the student can only make two cuts in total, and they cannot cut multiple links in one go—each cut can only separate one chain at a time. Despite these restrictions, the student must pay exactly one chain link each day for the full 7-day stay. How can the student achieve this with just two cuts?
Hint: You can ask for change.
Solution: Here’s how the student can pay the rent using the 7-link golden chain with only two cuts:
Step-by-step Process
- First cut: Separate a single link (1-link piece).
- Second cut: Separate a 2-link piece from the remaining chain.
Now, you have three pieces: 1-link piece, a 2-link piece and 4-link piece.
Paying the Rent Daily
- Day 1: Give the 1-link piece.
- Day 2: Take back the 1-link piece and give the 2-link piece.
- Day 3: Give the 1-link piece along with the 2-link piece, making 3 links in total.
- Day 4: Take back both the 1-link and 2-link pieces and give the 4-link piece.
- Day 5: Give the 1-link piece along with the 4-link piece, making 5 links in total.
- Day 6: Take back the 1-link piece and give the 2-link piece along with the 4-link piece, making 6 links in total.
- Day 7: Give the 1-link piece again, bringing the total to 7 links.
By following this strategy of giving and taking back the pieces, the student can meet the condition of paying exactly one chain link per day, using only two cuts.
9. There are nine dots arranged in a 3×3 grid. Connect all nine dots using exactly four straight lines without lifting your pencil.
Hint: Think outside the box and consider extending lines beyond the dots.
Solution: The trick is to think outside the box — literally. The four lines must extend beyond the boundary of the 3×3 grid. Starting outside the grid on one side allows each line to pass through three dots, then continue past the edge to set up the next line. Most people assume the lines must stay within the square formed by the dots, but the puzzle never says that.
10. You are having a holiday in the USA in early spring. THe sun is burning you, and so you go and sit down on a bench in the shade to have a rest. As you sit there you notice:
A benie lying on the ground next to two large rocks, an icy carrot and a lot of little rocks in a pile of water.
How did they get there?
Hint: No-one really put them there.
Solution: A snowman melted in the sun, leaving behind a beanie (hat), an icy carrot (perhaps a snack), and small rocks that were part of the snowman's structure, which mixed with water as it melted.
11. A truck driver taking a back road to avoid excess traffic came to a concrete overpass that looked a bit too low for him to pass under. Easing the mighty tractor gingerly forward, he was dismayed to hear the box scrunching on the underside of the overpass. Getting out of the cab, he inspected the roof and swore a mighty oath that went something like this:
*!%#*@#%#@!
He only needed half an inch. So near and yet so far! Nevertheless, he was soon on his way again, thanks to a very bright idea. How did he get under without further damage to his rig?
Solution: The truck driver released the air from the trailer air bags, which lowered the height of the truck just enough to fit under the overpass without causing further damage. Once he passed through, he could reinflate the air bags and continue on his way.
12. Two cars leave from point A towards point B.
They both travel at the exact same speed and follow the exact same path, thus taking the exact same time to arrive to point B.
However, one of the cars arrives about 34.73 minutes after the other one.
How is that possible?
Solution: One of the cars left point A earlier than the other car, specifically 34.73 minutes earlier. Although they traveled at the same speed and took the same time to reach point B, the first car arrived before the second car due to this head start.
13. I'm going to flip a coin four times.
The first time the coin shows heads.
The second time, the coin shows heads again.
And so does the third time.
What are the odds that flipping the coin a fourth time will show tails?
Solution: The odds of flipping tails on the fourth coin flip are still 50%, regardless of the previous results. Each coin flip is an independent event, meaning that previous outcomes do not affect the probability of future outcomes.
14. A man sat stll in a chair for 88hrs. Why?
Solution: Because he was dead—his body remained in the chair for 88 hours before being discovered.
15. A good pot is kept right under a running tap but still does not get filled up. why?
Solution: The pot is kept under a running tap, but it has a hole in the bottom, allowing water to leak out as it flows in, preventing it from ever filling up.
16. A woman jumped off a 33 story building as she falls past the 23rd story she immediately regrets her decision, what is going on?
Solution: The woman is bungee jumping from the 24th story of a 33-story building. As she falls past the 23rd story, she realizes that she is scared and regrets her decision to jump, but she is safe due to the bungee cord.
17. A man phones his wife from work. He tells her he won't be home until eight o'clock. He arrives home two minutes past eight, and his wife goes crazy at him. Why? 8)
Solution: The wife is angry because the man did not specify whether he meant 8:00 AM or 8:00 PM. He arrived home two minutes past 8:00 PM, but she expected him home at 8:00 AM, making her wait all day for him.
Additionally, he may have been out drinking with friends and stayed out until 8:00 AM, causing her to worry and become upset.
18. A man pushed his car. He stopped at a hotel and it suddenly dawned on him that he was bankrupt.
Why?
Solution: The man is playing a game of Monopoly. He pushed his car token around the board and stopped at an opponent's hotel space, realizing he cannot afford to pay the rent, which leads to his bankruptcy in the game.
19. A man was pushing his car..
When he came across a hotel at this point he knew he was bankrupt
Why?
Solution: The man is playing a game of Monopoly. He is pushing his car token around the board and has landed on a hotel property that he cannot afford to pay for, which is why he knows he is bankrupt.
20. A man is walking in the middle of a street. Street lights are off. He has worn black trouser and black shirt as also black shoes. He has covered his face with black cloth and wearing black specs. Colour of his hair is also black and he is moving from east to west. Suddenly, a speeding car approaching from opposite side applies brake and car is just stopped in front of the man.
How did car driver noticed that man?
Solution: The car driver noticed the man because it was daytime, allowing visibility despite the man's all-black attire.
21. Bill, Bob, Dave, Will and Stu all ive in a flat together. Bill, Bob n Dave go out one day. To their horror they find Will dead on the floor surrounded by a pool of water an Stu claims he dozn't know wot happened. How n why did Will die??? Do you know ??
Solution: Will was a fish, and he died because his bowl was knocked over, spilling all the water onto the floor. Bill, Bob, and Dave found him dead on the floor surrounded by the pool of water that had come from his bowl. Stu, being a cat, didn't know what happened because he wasn't aware of the events that led to the bowl being overturned.
22. One person is going in a particular city on friday..spend two days there and when he was returning from the journey from that country the day was friday.. how it is possible ?
Solution: The person is traveling to a location where the time zone is different, specifically to a place where crossing the International Date Line causes the day to change. He leaves on Friday, spends two days there (Saturday and Sunday), and returns on a Friday because he travels back across the Date Line, effectively making it Friday again.
23. A family of 4 were going on a mountaineering holiday. The second morning they were all found dead in their cabin. The coroner declared that they had all died from drowning. The faucets in the cabin had not been left on and the boiler and water storage units were undamaged. There was no sign of any foul play. What caused them to drown?
Clues : 1. They were a mile from the nearest lake.
2. It had not rained for 5 days. Not a flash flood.
3. It was not caused by problems with a dam.
Solution: The family had climbed to a high-altitude cabin where the thin air caused high-altitude pulmonary edema. During the night their lungs filled with their own bodily fluid, and they “drowned” internally while asleep. No external water was involved, so everything in the cabin appeared dry.
24. A man in a restaurant complains to the waiter that there is a fly in his cup of coffee. The waiter takes the cup away and promises to bring a fresh cup of coffee. The waiter returns a few minutes later with a fresh cup of coffee. The man tastes the coffee and again complains that this is the original cup of coffee with the fly removed. The man was correct, but how did he manage to find out?
Solution: He had already put sugar in the first cup before noticing the fly.
When the waiter returned, the man tasted the “fresh” coffee and could tell it was already sweetened. A truly fresh cup would not have had his sugar in it.
25. in the mountains there is a cabin.inside,three people lie dead.the cabin is locked from the inside and all three died at the same time.altough there is no sign of a struggle or of any weapon,their deaths were violent but accidental.they knew they were going to die immediately before they died.they died because they were in the cabin.if they had gotten out of the cabin three hours earlier they would have lived.what happened???
Solution: The three people were trapped in a cabin during a heavy snowstorm. They died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to a malfunctioning heater or stove, which they had been using for warmth. If they had left the cabin three hours earlier, they would have avoided the storm and survived.
26. Shadow drove into the Speedy Service Station and pulled up to the pumps. "Fill it up, please," said Shadow. "This may sound strange," said the owner, "but I'd rather fill two cars from out of town than one car from this town." Shadow looked across the small town and replied, "I know just what you mean." Why would the o...wner feel this way?
Solution: The townspeople buy their gasoline on credit, paying later or sometimes not at all, while visitors must pay cash on the spot. Two cash sales to out-of-towners give the owner immediate money; one sale to a local merely adds to an unpaid tab. That is why he would rather fill two cars from out of town than one car from his own town.
27. A man says the following about himself:
- "I was born in May, yet my birthday is in June."
- "Years later, I legally married my own mother."
How is this possible without breaking any laws or taboos?
Hint: Consider that May might not refer to a month, and "marrying" someone can mean more than being the groom.
Solution: The man was physically born in a village (or hospital) whose name is May; the calendar date of his birth, however, fell in the month of June. Thus he was literally born in May while having a June birthday.
As an adult he became an ordained minister (or similar official). When his widowed mother remarried, he acted as the officiant at her wedding ceremony. In that legal sense he "married his mother," but he was not the groom—merely the person conducting the service. Therefore no laws or taboos were broken.
28. A man leaves a will he wishes to be cremated between March and November and buried between November and March. Why?
Solution: The man wishes to be cremated between March and November, which are the warmer months, making cremation easier. He wants to be buried between November and March, which are the colder months, when the ground may be frozen and burial is more difficult. This reflects a practical consideration based on seasonal conditions, particularly if he lives in the Southern Hemisphere where the seasons are reversed.
29. Something very extraordinary happened on the 6th of May, 1978 at 12:34 a.m.
What was it?
Solution: On May 6, 1978, at 12:34 a.m., the time and date can be expressed as 12:34 on 5/6/78, which corresponds to the sequential order of numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. This unique alignment of time and date is considered extraordinary.
30. A brown house is made out of brown bricks and a white house is made out of white bricks, so what is a greenhouse made out of?
Solution: A greenhouse is typically made of glass or any clear material that allows sunlight to enter, creating an environment suitable for plants to grow.
31. An archaeologist finds two well-preserved bodies under much rock. He knows immediately who these two people are. Who are they and why?
Solution: The two bodies are Adam and Eve. The archaeologist sees they have no belly buttons—because they were never born and thus never had umbilical cords—so he can immediately identify them.
32. ONE MAN SHOT DEAD IN TRAGIC ACCIDENT
This headline, and many like it, appeared in a lot of newspapers last year. Even though this death was mourned for a long while, there was no police investigation and no arrest. Why?
Solution: The man was shot dead in a tragic accident while participating in a hunting activity. Since it was an accident and there was no foul play involved, there was no need for a police investigation or arrests.
33. You are trying to get to a place called Village A. However, on your travel, you come to a fork in the road which leads to two identical villages, Village A and Village B. From a friend, you know already know village A will tell the truth at all times, and village B will always lie. Trying to decide, a man walks past you in the road. You are only allowed to ask him one question about trying to get to you destination, without knowing whether he is from village a or b. hat do you ask?
Solution: Ask the man, 'If I were to ask you which road leads to Village A, what would you say?' If he is from Village A, he will truthfully point to Village A. If he is from Village B, he will lie about what he would say and also point to Village A. In both cases, you can follow the direction he indicates to reach Village A.
34. You walk in to a town and really need a haircut. A local tells you there are two barbers in the town, right opposite each other. In one barber shop, the barber has a very clean shop and a neat haircut. In the other, the barber is spinning around on one of the chairs with a scruffy haircut. You consider your options for a wile. Where should you go and why?
Solution: You should go to the barber with the scruffy haircut. Since barbers typically do not cut their own hair, the scruffy barber likely gave the neat-haired barber his haircut, indicating that the scruffy barber is the better stylist.
35. 6 cups are lined up if the first 3 are full but you can only move 1 to create the pattern Full empty full empty full empty.
Solution: Pick up the 2nd cup, pour its contents into the 5th cup, then place the now-empty 2nd cup back: the sequence becomes full, empty, full, empty, full, empty.
36. Peter saw his classmate James dead in a restroom holding a gun. The investigator said that it was a murder and not a suicide. The investigator saw James holding a note in his right hand. The investigator said that he has 3 suspects: James` twin, James` girlfriend and a transferee. Who was it?
NOTE: All in this school are intelligent.
Solution: The murderer is James' twin. Since they are identical, the twin could have easily staged the scene to make it look like a suicide. The note in James' right hand suggests it was not a suicide, as a left-handed person would have difficulty writing it that way. The investigator ruled out suicide, indicating the circumstances were manipulated to mislead the investigation.
37. Dave, James, Carla and Anne was trapped in a giant box. They cannot see outside and its very dark inside. They shout and shout and shout for help until one man heard them. Dave asked man to find more people to lift the box. the man go to police station to asked for help. The man said that there are 4 people inside it and cant escape. they lift the giant box so dave, james, carla and anne were free. But the police said that the man who calls for help was the one who made the trap. Why?? (base on the story).
Solution: The man who called for help was the one who created the trap because he designed the giant box to keep Dave, James, Carla, and Anne inside. He likely intended to trap them for some reason, but when they shouted for help, he decided to call the police to save them, possibly to avoid getting caught himself. Additionally, he knew there were four people inside because he either heard four different voices or one of the trapped individuals informed him of their number.
38. A very kind beggar has 5 dollars until he saw another 5 dollars in his way. And when he saw a store, he bought 3 biscuits that cost 1 dollars each. How much is his money?
Solution: The beggar initially has 5 dollars and finds another 5 dollars, bringing his total to 10 dollars. However, since he is very kind, he likely returned the 5 dollars he found. Therefore, he only has his original 5 dollars. After buying 3 biscuits for 1 dollar each, he spends 3 dollars, leaving him with 2 dollars.
39. Joshua was trapped on a room. He saw 3 doors there. The first door leads to an acid gas that can melt a human`s body. The second door contains many traps and unseen lasers that can cut a body. And the third door contains 5 robots that were programmed to kill humans. What is the safest room?
Solution: The safest room is the one Joshua is currently in, as he is trapped there and cannot enter any of the other rooms, which all present lethal threats.
40. There is a room with no doors, no widows, nothing and a man is hung from the ceiling and a puddle of water is on the floor. How did he die?
Solution: The man stood on a block of ice to hang himself. Over time, the ice melted, leaving no evidence of how he was able to hang himself in a room with no doors or windows, and the puddle of water on the floor is from the melted ice. However, this raises questions about how he entered the room and how an observer knows he is there.
41. You are in the dark, and on the floor there are six shoes of three colors, and a heap of twenty-four socks, black and brown. How many socks and shoes must you take into the light to be certain that you have a matching pair of socks and a matching pair of shoes?
Solution: To ensure you have a matching pair of socks and a matching pair of shoes, you need to take 3 socks and 4 shoes into the light. This guarantees that you will have at least one matching pair of socks (since there are only two colors) and at least one matching pair of shoes (since there are three colors). In the worst-case scenario, you could have three shoes of different colors and still ensure a match with the fourth shoe.
42. A boy and a girl are sitting on the porch. "I'm a boy," says the child with black hair. "I'm a girl," says the child with red hair.
If at least one of them is lying, who is which?
Solution: The child with black hair is the girl, and the child with red hair is the boy. Since at least one of them is lying, if the black-haired child claims to be a boy, they must be lying, making them the girl. Consequently, the red-haired child, claiming to be a girl, must be the boy. This conclusion is supported by the understanding that both could be lying, which aligns with the condition of at least one lie.
43. Three spies, suspected as double agents, speak as follows when questioned:
Albert: "Bertie is a mole."
Bertie: "Cedric is a mole."
Cedric: "Bertie is lying."
Assuming that moles lie, other agents tell the truth, and there is just one mole among the three, determine:
1.) Who is the mole?
2.) If, on the other hand there are two moles present, who are they
Solution: 1) Bertie
2) Albert and Cedric
44. How many seconds are there in a minute? if your answer is 60, then that`s wrong. You need deep calculations here.
Solution: The answer is actually 61 seconds in certain contexts due to the addition of a leap second to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) approximately every 18 months. However, in standard timekeeping, there are 60 seconds in a minute.
45. There is a horse tied to a 10 meter rope. there is a bale of hay 11 meters away. the horse is able to get it without breaking the rope in any way. how?
Solution: The horse is tied to a post that is not directly at the point where the horse is standing, allowing it to move freely in a circular area. If the other end of the rope isn't tied to anything, or if the horse is positioned such that it can reach the hay by moving around the post, it can access the bale of hay that is 11 meters away.
46. It is 12 midnight and a man crying walking alone in the middle of the street but later on died, why?
Solution: While he was crying and walking down the center of the road at midnight, a vehicle struck him and he was killed.
47. Two known robbers are being tailed by two plain-clothes police officers 24 hours a day. Every morning the four of them go to the same diner for breakfast.
The thieves arrive, hang up their hats and coats on the cloak-room rack, sit at opposite ends of the counter, eat in silence, put their things back on and leave.
They never speak, never exchange notes, and make no obvious gestures—yet the criminals manage to pass detailed information to one another every single day without the policemen realising it.
How are the robbers communicating?
Hint: Look closely at what happens to their hats and coats while they are eating.
Solution: Before sitting down, the first robber encodes his message by choosing specific hooks on the cloak-room rack and by the order or orientation in which he hangs his hat and coat (for example, hook numbers 3-14-5 could represent the letters C-N-E).
The second robber notes the exact positions while the police think nothing of it. When the meal is over, he re-hangs the garments on different, pre-agreed hooks to send his reply. Because all the police see is two men hanging up and reclaiming outerwear, the silent exchange of information goes completely unnoticed.
48. John's neighbor calls the cops on john. When the cops open the door they see a carpenter a car mechanic a truck driver and a fire fighter playing cards. John is the fire fighter the cops DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT KNOW THAT JOHN IS THE FIRE FIGHTER. the cops go and arrest john how do the know its john?
Solution: The cops know it's John because he is the only man in the room, while the carpenter, mechanic, and truck driver are all women.
49. A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the ground floor to go to work or to go shopping. When he returns he takes the elevator to the seventh floor and walks up the stairs to reach his apartment on the tenth floor. He hates walking so why does he do it?
Solution: The man is short and cannot reach the button for the tenth floor in the elevator, so he can only press the button for the seventh floor and has to walk the remaining three floors to his apartment.
50. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?
Solution: The woman had two sons who were part of a set of triplets (or more), meaning they were born at the same time but are not considered twins.
51. A pilot crash lands his plane on an island with only two other inhabitants One is garbed in Black, and carries a hammer and tells the pilot if he utters anything that is a lie he will kill him. A man dressed in white carrying sword tells him if he says anything that is the truth he will be killed. The two entities tell the man they will serve him for the rest of their lives if he can utter something neither a lie but neither true. The only way off the island is to say something that won't get him killed so he can refuel and take off what should he say.?
Solution: The pilot should say, "You will kill me." This statement is neither a lie nor the truth because if the man in black kills him, the statement becomes true, but if he does not kill him, it becomes a lie. This paradox allows him to avoid being killed by either inhabitant.
52. This puzzle goes on the assumption Bubby was trapped behind the cellar door.
It could very well be that Bubby was not in the cellar all along and lived in a house confined to areas with no windows or......
Mirrors.
He opened the cellar door and came face to face with a mirror... and saw what he was not meant to see...his own face...which is only possible with a mirror.
Solution: Bubby was not actually trapped in the cellar but was in a room with no windows, where he had never seen his own reflection. When he opened the cellar door, he encountered a mirror that revealed his own face for the first time, leading to a shocking realization about his identity.
53. I have forests, but no trees
I have lakes, but no water
I have roads but no cars
What am I?
Solution: The answer is a map. A map can depict forests, lakes, and roads symbolically, but it does not contain actual trees, water, or cars. It is a representation of these features rather than the real things themselves.
54. 7 o'clock. You are asleep and there is a sudden knock on the door. Behind the door there are your parents who come to have breakfast. In your fridge are bread, milk, juice, and a jar of jam. To the answer, what will you open first? Note: it's not what you think. So far not one person has gotten the answer. Read carefully.
Hint: Think about the sequence of actions you take when waking up.
Solution: You will open your eyes first.
55. In the middle of the night, while Mr. Jones was asleep in his hotel room, the telephone beside his bead rang. Mr Jones woke up, picked up the phone, and said "Hello". Then he put the phone down and went back to sleep. Can you guess who had telephoned him?
Solution: The call was the hotel’s automatic wake-up service that Mr. Jones himself had scheduled—no person actually phoned him.
56. Albert Amblefoot walked outside in a heavy rainstorm for half an hour without getting a single hair of his head wet. He didn't wear a hat, carry an umbrella, or hold anything over his head. His clothes got soaking wet. How could this happen?
Hint: Consider the state of Albert's head.
Solution: Albert is bald, so he has no hair to get wet.
57. A man lives on the top floor of a condominium. Every morning he takes the elevator to the lobby and exits the building. When he returns, however, he can only go up halfway with the elevator and has to walk the rest of the way - unless it is raining. What is the explanation for this behavior?
Hint: Think of something that could limit the use of the elevator.
Solution: The man is short and can only reach the elevator button for the ground floor. When it rains, he uses an umbrella, which allows him to press the button for his floor.
58. You are a doctor at a top hospital. You have six gravely ill patients, five of whom are in urgent need of organ transplants. You can't help them, though, because there are no available organs that can be used to save their lives. The sixth patient, however, will die without a particular medicine. If s/he dies, you will be able to save the other five patients by using the organs of patient 6, who is an organ donor. What do you do?
Solution: You administer the medicine to Patient 6 and do not harvest any organs; killing a patient for parts is unethical and illegal, so the other five must go untreated.
59. A man dressed in black walking down a road without any type of lights suddenly came down that road a car without lights, the driver of the car saw the man and swerved. How did he do that?
Hint: The man never said anything.
Solution: It was daylight so the driver saw him.
60. Arrange 6 hens in 7 boxes no box should be empty
Solution: Put one hen in each of six boxes, then place one of those hen-filled boxes inside the seventh box; all seven boxes now contain something, yet only six hens are used.
61. 10 Horses in field but only 9 stables how to fit them all in
Hint: Consider the possibility of sharing or using the stables creatively.
Solution: Put one horse in each of the 9 stables and then put the 10th horse in one of the stables with another horse.
62. I have teeth, but I don't bite.
I am usually made of plastic.
Carry me in your purse or pocket.
Slide me through your hair.
Hint: Think about items used for grooming or styling hair.
63. After detailed planning, three men raid a house and take hundreds of thousands of euros. In cash. While the three men leave with all the money, the homeowner is arrested. How is this possible?
Hint: Think about the relationship between the homeowner and the assailants.
Solution: The owner of the house was an accomplice of the assault.
64. A man arrives at a bar, asks for a glass of water, the bartender bends down pulls out a gun, points it at him and the man says thank you very much and leaves. Why?
Hint: Think about the situation of the man and his need for water.
Solution: The man had a hiccup attack, and the bartender scared him to help him get over it.
65. It's 3:00 in the morning, the doorbell rings and you wake up. An unexpected visit. It's your parents coming for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread, and cheese. What is the first thing you open?
Hint: Think about what you need to do first before attending to your parents.
Solution: The first thing you open is your eyes.
67. A man without eyes sees plum on a tree. He neither takes plums nor leaves plums. How can this be?
Hint: Consider the meaning of 'seeing' and the context of the situation.
Solution: The man is blind but can still perceive the presence of the plum tree through other senses, such as touch or smell.
68. Today we are used to seeing prices like $9.99 or $99.95 instead of neat round numbers such as $10.00 or $100.00. Most people assume this is simply because the amount looks cheaper to the customer.
That psychological effect is real, but it is not why the custom began.
When this style of pricing first appeared in the late-19th / early-20th century, shopkeepers had a completely different motive. What was the original reason for setting prices just below a round figure?
Hint: Think about how early mechanical cash registers worked and the problem of employee honesty at the time.
Solution: The fractions of a dollar (“. 99,” “. 95,” etc.) were introduced to force the clerk to open the cash register and make change for every sale. If an item had cost an even $1.00, a dishonest employee could simply pocket the bill without ringing it up. By pricing it at 99 cents, the customer would expect at least a penny in change, obliging the clerk to unlock (and therefore record) the transaction on the cash register, whose familiar “ding” was an audible signal to the manager that money was being properly logged. The practice later proved useful for marketing psychology, but its origin was anti-theft bookkeeping.
71. A man works on the 10th floor and always takes the elevator down to ground level at the end of the day. Yet every morning he only takes the elevator to the 7th floor and walks up the stairs to the 10th floor, even when he is in a hurry. Why?
Hint: Consider the man's physical characteristics.
Solution: He is short and can only reach the button for the 7th floor in the elevator.
72. A man carries his son into the hospital because his son has a nail in his foot. The surgeon then walks in and says, 'I cannot operate on this boy... he is my son.'
Hint: Consider the surgeon's identity and societal roles.
Solution: The surgeon is the boy's mother.
73. Using the numbers 7, 7, 7, 7, 1, the answer is 100. How?
Condition: using only +, *, /, %, () these symbols. Don't use other symbols.
Hint: Consider how you can manipulate the numbers through multiplication and addition to reach 100.
Solution: (7 * 7) + (7 * 7) + 1 = 100
74. A man took an expensive piece of equipment with him on a journey. When he reached his destination he found that the equipment, though in perfect working order was of no practically no use. Why not?
Hint: Consider the context of the journey and the nature of the equipment.
Solution: The equipment was a piece of medical equipment, and he arrived at a location where there were no patients or medical needs.
76. A rooster lays an egg on a barn roof. It's a triangular roof. Which way does it roll (left or right)?
Hint: Consider the nature of roosters and their ability to lay eggs.
Solution: Roosters do not lay eggs.
77. A man walks into a bar and asks for a drink of water. The bartender gets a gun, shoots at him, but did not kill him. The man was so grateful. How come?
Hint: Consider the man's initial request and the bartender's actions.
Solution: The man had hiccups, and the bartender shot at him to scare him, which cured his hiccups. That's why he was grateful.
78. Mary and Maria, real sisters, had to cross a river...
There was a bridge to cross a river, Mary went on the bridge and crossed the river easily...
But Maria jumped in the river, did the efforts of swimming and thus crossed the river...
Still all people were saying that Maria is more intelligent. How come????
Solution: The bridge was old and could take only a child’s weight. Mary, the younger and lighter sister, could walk over it safely, but Maria knew that if she tried it would collapse. Realising the danger, she chose to swim instead, so everyone judged Maria the smarter of the two.
79. A student at school wrote something rude on the wall and nobody owned up to doing it. How did the teacher find out who did it?
Hint: The teacher noticed something unusual about the students' behavior.
Solution: The teacher asked the students to write a sentence on the board, and the handwriting matched that of the student who wrote on the wall.
80. You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus.
An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
An old friend who once saved your life.
The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
Knowing that there can only be one passenger in your car, whom would you choose?
Solution: Hand your keys to the old friend so he can drive the dying old lady to the hospital, and stay behind to wait for the bus with your perfect partner.
81. How 22 horses can be tied equally in 7 sticks?
Hint: Consider how the horses can be arranged around the sticks.
Solution: By tying the horses in a circular formation around the sticks, each stick can hold multiple horses, allowing for 22 horses to be tied with only 7 sticks.
83. If you look, you can't see me. If you see me, you cannot see anything else. I can make you walk if you can't. Sometimes I speak the truth, and sometimes I lie. If I lie, I am nearer the truth. What am I?
Hint: Think about something that can obscure your vision or perception.
84. In a skill test a teacher gave an open pot, which can contain only 3 litres of water, to a student and told to bring 5 litres of water from market. How will the student bring 5 litres of water in a pot whose capacity is only 3 litres?
Solution: He makes two trips: first he fills the 3-litre pot to the brim and brings those 3 L to the teacher; then he returns, fills the pot two-thirds full (2 L), and brings that. The two deliveries add up to the required 5 litres.
85. The pilot flying a plane has a bomb on board. He presses the button and opens the door but the bomb doesn't fall out. Why?
Hint: The bomb is not in a position to fall out of the plane.
Solution: The bomb is attached to the plane or is inside the plane in a way that prevents it from falling out.
86. The man drives a car very fast (about 80km/h), suddenly, one beautiful lady with her dog across the street where that car is being driven. The car touches the lady or the dog?
Hint: Consider the perspective of the situation and what is meant by 'touches'.
Solution: The car touches neither the lady nor the dog; the lady and her dog are not actually in the path of the car.
87. A man lives in a house where all the windows in all of the rooms on each side of the house face in the same direction. Where does he live?
Solution: He lives at the North Pole, where every window faces south.
89. When Henry Ford interviewed a candidate for a Senior position in his company he often took the candidate out for lunch and ordered soup for them. Why?
Hint: Consider the candidate's behavior during the meal.
Solution: Henry Ford wanted to see how the candidate behaved when they were served soup. If they salted the soup before tasting it, it indicated a lack of judgment, which was a red flag for Ford.
90. A farmer has 10 horses but only 9 stables. How can he get 10 horses in 9 stables?
Solution: Put two horses in one stable and one horse in each of the other eight; nine stables now hold all ten horses.
91. The emperor has 1 000 bottles of wine locked away for tomorrow night’s banquet. Unfortunately, a spy has slipped poison into exactly one of them. The poison is lethal but slow: anyone who drinks even a single drop will die exactly 24 hours after drinking.
The emperor has 10 condemned prisoners he can use as taste-testers. A prisoner may sip from any number of bottles. After 24 hours it will be apparent which prisoners are dead and which are alive, and this is the only information that will be available before the banquet.
Can the emperor always determine with certainty which single bottle is poisoned using at most these 10 prisoners? If so:
- Describe a tasting scheme that works.
- State the minimum number of prisoners required to guarantee success.
- Under your scheme, how many prisoners are guaranteed to die?
Hint: Number the bottles 1–1000 and think of writing each number in binary. Let each prisoner correspond to one binary digit.
Solution: Minimum number of prisoners. Each prisoner has two possible outcomes (lives or dies), so n prisoners provide at most 2n distinct outcome patterns. We need at least as many patterns as bottles, so we need the smallest n for which 2n ≥ 1000. Because 29 = 512 < 1000 and 210 = 1024 ≥ 1000, the minimum is 10 prisoners.
Labelling scheme.
- Label the bottles 1–1000.
- Write each label as a 10-bit binary number (1 = 0000000001, 1000 = 1111101000).
- Assign each of the 10 prisoners to one bit position: prisoner 1 to the least-significant bit (20), prisoner 2 to the next (21), …, prisoner 10 to the most-significant bit (29).
- For every bottle, let each prisoner whose assigned bit is 1 in that bottle’s binary label take a sip from that bottle.
Reading the result. After 24 hours, record which prisoners died. Treat their numbers as the 1-bits of a 10-bit binary number; the resulting binary value is exactly the label of the poisoned bottle.
Casualties. In the worst case all 10 prisoners could have tasted the poisoned bottle, so up to 10 may die. No scheme using only outcome patterns (live/die) can guarantee fewer deaths while still uniquely identifying one of 1000 bottles in a single 24-hour round.
Thus the emperor can infallibly find the poisoned bottle with exactly 10 prisoners, and the number of prisoners who die is between 0 and 10 inclusive, with 10 being the guaranteed upper bound.
92. A man lives in the penthouse of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. Upon his return, however, he can only travel halfway up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way - unless it's raining. What is the explanation for this?
Solution: The man is short and can only reach the button for the ground floor when he goes down. When he returns, he can only reach the button for the halfway point unless it is raining, in which case he cannot use the elevator at all.
93. One night a spider was in a ladies bath. She screamed and got her son to flush it away. What came out the tap the next day ?
Solution: A spider came out of the tap the next day, as it was flushed down the toilet but survived and made its way back through the plumbing system.
94. Dos mujeres en un balcón ven venir a dos hombres. Una le dice a la otra: Por ahí vienen nuestros padres, esposos de nuestras madres, padres de nuestros hijos y nuestros propios maridos. ¿ Es esto posible y porqué ?
Solution: Yes, it is possible. The two women are married to the two men, who are their fathers. This means that the men are also the husbands of their mothers, the fathers of their children, and their own husbands.
97. A farmer has 10 horses but only 9 stables. How can he get 10 horses in 9 stables?
Solution: The farmer can place one horse in one of the stables and then place the remaining horses in the other stables. For example, he can put one horse in a stable and then let the other horses share the remaining stables, or he can keep one horse outside the stables.
