1.Two children, who were all tangled up in their reckoning of the days of the week, paused on their way to school to straighten matters out. "When the day after tomorrow is yesterday," said Priscilla, "then 'today' will be as far from Sunday as that day was which was 'today' when the day before yesterday was tomorrow!"
On which day of the week did this puzzling prattle occur?
Answer
The two children were so befogged over the calendar that they had started on their way to school on Sunday morning!
2.A basket contains 5 apples. Do you know how to divide them among 5 kids so that each one has an apple and one apple stays in the basket?
Answer
4 kids get an apple (one apple for each one of them) and the fifth kid gets an apple with the basket still containing the apple.
3.There are a few trees in a garden. On one of them, a pear tree, there are pears (quite logical). But after a strong wind blew, there were neither pears on the tree nor on the ground. How come?
Answer
At first, there were 2 pears on the tree. After the wind blew, one pear fell on the ground. So there where no pears on the tree and there were no pears on the ground.
4.A poor farmer went to the market to sell some peas and lentils. However, as he had only one sack and didn't want to mix peas and lentils, he poured in the peas first, tied the sack in the middle, and then filled the top portion of the sack with the lentils. At the market a rich innkeeper happened by with his own sack. He wanted to buy the peas, but he did not want the lentils.
Pouring the seed anywhere else but the sacks is considered soiling. Trading sacks is not allowed. The farmer can't cut a hole in his sack.
How would you transfer the peas to the innkeeper's sack, which he wants to keep, without soiling the produce?
Answer
Pour the lentils into the innkeeper's sack, bind it and turn inside out. Pour in the peas. Then unbind the sack a pour the lentils back to your sack.
5.The captain of a ship was telling this interesting story: "We traveled the sea far and wide. At one time, two of my sailors were standing on opposite sides of the ship. One was looking west and the other one east. And at the same time, they could see each other clearly."
How can that be possible?
Answer
The marines were standing back against the sides of the ship so they were looking at each other. It does not matter where the ship is (of course it does not apply to the North and South Pole).
6.A ladder hangs over the side of a ship anchored in a port. The bottom rung touches the water. The distance between rungs is 20 cm and the length of the ladder is 180 cm. The tide is rising at a rate of 15 cm each hour.
When will the water reach the seventh rung from the top?
Answer
If the tide is raising water, then it is raising the ship on water, too. So water will reach still the first rung.
7.Three people check into a hotel. They pay $30 to the manager and go to their room. The manager finds out that the room rate is $25 and gives the bellboy $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that $5 would be difficult to split among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person. Now each person paid $10 and got back $1. So they paid $9 each, totaling $27. The bellboy has another $2, adding up to $29.
Where is the remaining dollar?
Answer
This is a nice nonsense. Each guest paid $9 because they gave $30 and they were given back $3. The manager got $25 and the difference ($2) has the bellboy. So it is nonsense to add the $2 to the $27, since the bellboy kept the $2.
8. 13 people came into a hotel with 12 rooms and each guest wanted his own room. The bellboy solved this problem.
He asked the thirteenth guest to wait a little with the first guest in room number 1. So in the first room, there were two people. The bellboy took the third guest to room number 2, the fourth to number 3, ..., and the twelfth guest to room number 11. Then he returned to room number 1 and took the thirteenth guest to room number 12, still vacant.
How can everybody have his own room?
Answer
Of course, it is impossible. Into the second room should have gone the 2nd guest, because the 13th guest was waiting in room number 1.
9.Two girls were born to the same mother, on the same day, at the same time, in the same month and year and yet they're not twins.
How can this be?
Answer
The two babies are two of a set of triplets.
10.A girl who was just learning to drive went down a one-way street in the wrong direction, but didn't break the law.
How come?
Answer
She was walking.
SHORT RIDDLES WITH ANSWERS
- Why can't a man living in the USA be buried in Canada?
- Is it legal for a man in California to marry his widow's sister? Why?
- A man builds a house rectangular in shape. All the sides have southern exposure. A big bear walks by. What color is the bear? Why? (similar to the Bear riddle in the section Einstein's Riddles)
- If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many do you have?
- How far can a dog run into the woods?
- One big hockey fan claimed to be able to tell the score before any game. How did he do it?
- You can start a fire if you have alcohol, petrol, kerosene, paper, candle, coke, a full matchbox and a piece of cotton wool. What is the first thing you light?
- Why do Chinese men eat more rice than Japanese men do?
- What word describes a woman who does not have all her fingers on one hand?
Here come the answers to the riddling questions:
- Why should a living man be buried?
- No, it is not legal to get married if you are dead.
- The bear is white since the house is built on the North Pole.
- If you take 2 apples, then you have of course 2.
- The dog can run into the woods only to the half of the wood - than it would run out of the woods.
- The score before any hockey game should be 0:0, shouldn't it?
- A match, of course.
- There are more Chinese men than Japanese men.
- Normal - I wouldn't be very happy if I had all my fingers (10) on one hand.
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