[El Magnifico]

EDIT: answers included below

well, Genmotty hinted that there was a riddle thread before, so rather than re-animate it i thought i'd start a fresh one.


the time as i post is 0935hrs local.

i will post the answers at around 1200hrs local.


or you can pm me your answers and i will mark them for you

(it would be helpful if you could post here when you have sent me a pm, i keep missing the "new message" thingy's )



but without further ado (questions get harder as they go - the last one is a bit silly):

Q1. A doctor and a boy were fishing. The boy was the doctor's son, but the doctor was not the boy's father. Who was the doctor?

His mother

Q2. A frog fell into a well 12 feet deep. He could jump 3 feet, but every time he jumped 3 feet, he fell back 2 feet. How many times did he have to jump to get out of the well?

depends on how you read the question:

10 or 11 jumps - after 9 jumps the frog will reach 9 feet. the 10th jump will take him to 12 feet (and hopefully out of the well). i have head people suggest that he would still fall 2 feet and would need the 11th jump to clear the well

Q3. A man started to town with a fox, a goose and a sack of corn. He came to a stream which he had to cross in a tiny boat. He could only take one across at a time. He could not leave the fox alone with the goose or the goose alone with the corn. How did he get them all safely over the stream?

He took the goose over first and came back. Then he took the fox across and brought the goose back. Next he took the corn over. He came back alone and took the goose.

Q4. It doesn't hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time. This little test should help you get started.

During a visit to a mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criteria is that defines if a patient should be institutionalized.

"Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub. Then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the patient and ask the patient to empty the bathtub."

Okay, here's your test:
1. Would you use the spoon?
2. Would you use the teacup?
3. Would you use the bucket?

"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would choose the bucket, as it is larger than the spoon."
What was the director's response?

“No!, a normal person would pull the plug!”

Q5. A man in a restaurant asked a waiter for a juice glass, a dinner plate, water, a match, and a lemon wedge. The man poured enough water onto the plate to cover it.
"If you can get the water on the plate into this glass without touching or moving this plate, I will give you $100," the man said. "You can use the match and lemon to do this."
A few minutes later, the waiter walked away with $100 in his pocket. How did the waiter get the water into the glass?

First, the waiter stuck the match into the lemon wedge, so that it would stand straight. Then he lit the match, and put it in the middle of the plate with the lemon. Then, he placed the glass upside-down over the match. As the flame used up the oxygen in the glass, it created a small vacuum, which sucked in the water through the space between the glass and the plate. Thus, the waiter got the water into the glass without touching or moving the plate.

Q6. One snowy night, Sherlock Holmes was in his house sitting by a fire. All of a sudden a snowball came crashing through his window, breaking it.
Holmes got up and looked out the window just in time to see three neighbourhood kids who were brothers run around a corner. Their names were John Crimson, Mark Crimson and Paul Crimson.
The next day Holmes got a note on his door that read "? Crimson. He broke your window."
Which of the three Crimson brothers should Sherlock Holmes question about the incident?

Mark Crimson

"?" = question MARK, so the note on the door reads "Question Mark Crimson. He broke your window."

Q7. Once upon a time, in the West Lake village, a servant lived with his master. After service of about 30 years, his master became ill and was going to die. One day, the master called his servant and asked him for a wish. It could be any wish but just one. The master gave him one day to think about it. The servant became very happy and went to his mother for discussion about the wish. His mother was blind and she asked her son for making a wish for her eye-sight to come back. Then the servant went to his wife. She became very excited and asked for a son as they were childless for many years. After that, the servant went to his father who wanted to be rich and so he asked his son to wish for a lot of money. The next day he went to his master and made one wish through which all the three (mother, father, wife) got what they wanted. You have to tell what the servant asked the master.

the written answer is 'The servant said, "My mother wants to see her grandson swinging on a swing of gold."'

but any wish along the lines of "my mother wants to see her grandson wearing rich clothes" or whatever

Q8. If you use a certain formula on 13, you end up with 7.

Under the same formula, 2352 becomes 16, 246 becomes 14, 700 turns into 16, and 1030 becomes 14.

What would 9304 become?

my brain hurt after this one

19. Convert the number to binary, add one for every zero, and add two for every 1.

9304 becomes 10010001011000, which has 9 zeros and 5 ones.

[Circus Freak]

Got em all.

[El Magnifico]

Originally Posted by Circus

Got em all.

you got one wrong :P

(i'm giving you Q7, there are quite a few answers to it).


though well done on getting the last one, i was stumped on it myself :funny:

[Circus Freak]

Which did I get wrong?

[El Magnifico]

number 2.

though there are technically 2 answers, depending on how you read the question.

i'll check your PM again, but i think you diddnt get either


edit: just checked, you were out by 2


i have another selection prepared. i will post them when i reveal all in this thread ;D

[MalusHunter]

PM'd no. 2 .

EDIT - And three... though it's kind of a joke, but hey ;D.

[El Magnifico]

Originally Posted by MalusHunter

PM'd no. 2 .

EDIT - And three... though it's kind of a joke, but hey ;D.

unfortunately neither correct, but it did make me chuckle

[Circus Freak]

My favourites were 4 and 6.

[El Magnifico]

as promised - more riddles from me! 8)

answers will be revealed at 1500hrs local (time of posting is 1200hrs local)

Q9. Emperor Akbar once ruled over India. He was a wise and intelligent ruler, and he had in his court the Nine Gems, his nine advisors, who were each known for a particular skill. One of these Gems was Birbal, known for his wit and wisdom. The story below is one of the examples of his wit. Do you have it in you to find out the answer?

One day, a dishonest, one-eyed man wanted to punish Birbal. He accused him of stealing his 24 karat gold necklace and reported this theft to the police. The case was brought to the high court where the judge knew Birbal very well, and he also knew that he was not a thief. So, he asked the man, "What makes you think that Birbal stole your necklace?"

"Your Honor, with my own one eye, I saw him stealing the necklace," the man swiftly replied. Then he stated, "If he is innocent, let him prove it. Allow me to bring a hot iron, and if he can hold it in his bare hands, then I will be satisfied that he didn't take my necklace and isn't lying to me."

A confused Birbal said, "You mean that if I'm telling the truth, I will not burn my hands with that red hot iron?"

"Of course not! God will then protect you," the man strongly declared in front of a nodding crowd.

It would seem as if Birbal couldn't do anything but hold the red hot iron which would undoubtedly burn him whether he was telling the truth or lying. However, he came up with another one of his witty replies on the spot.

Can you guess what he said?

Calmly, Birbal stated, "I am ready for that, if you believe that I will not be burnt, but the same should apply to you also. If you aren't lying, the hot iron should not burn your hands either. So, you can kindly bring that red hot iron, holding it in both of your hands, and then give it to me to hold it."

The speechless man quickly told the judge he would search in his house again, bowed, left, and never lied against Birbal again.

Q10. A fairly poor country was in the middle of a war. Being on the lower-end of the economic scale, they didn't have enough money for fancy armor or weapons. They typically went into battle armed with nothing more than regular clothes, cloth helmets, and an assortment of older-model firearms.

A few months into the war, the ruler of the country decided that an investment in new Army helmets would probably be a wise choice (considering the large number of head injuries caused by the thin cloth ones). After spending nearly all the money the country could scrape together on new steel helmets, they were shocked to see the number of head injuries go up.

How could it be possible that steel helmets, assuming the helmets fit perfectly, caused more injuries than cloth?

When people in the Army would be shot in the head (with a cloth helmet) they wouldn't get head injuries, they would die. Cloth may protect somewhat, but not enough to stop most bullets. Death isn't considered a head injury. However, with steel helmets, the bullet could be slowed down enough to not kill, but just injure. If a hit in the head wasn't fatal, it would be considered a head injury. So, instead of most shots to the head being fatal, they became head injuries.

Q11. Add one straight line to make this true


20 10 5 = 4.40

Add a line to the top of the 1:

20 T0 5 = 4.40 (read it as if telling the time, twenty to five is four forty)

Q12. A palindrome is a word that reads the same when spelled backwards (eg level).
How could the following word be considered a palindrome?

FOOTSTOOL

this one was a tough one:

Footstool is a palindrome when written in Morse code. It looks like:

..-. --- --- - ... - --- --- .-..

Q13. A soldier is taking part in a “survival exercise”. He is about to be taken to an unknown (to him ) forest somewhere.

He is given the following information:

1. there are two tribes living in the forest (both speak English).
2. one of the tribes are a, though under-developed, remarkable and peace loving people who have a sacred pact to never lie (on pain of death). They will always answer the first question asked of them, and will then most likely flee (on the off chance that you are from the other tribe)
3. the other tribe are quite the opposite. They have a pact to kill anyone not from their tribe on sight. However, they will always grant their “targets” a request/question (if it is asked before they kill you of course ). Whereas the peace loving tribe will always tell the truth, this tribe will ALWAYS lie (hoping to deceive their prey)

the soldier is told that he must find the peaceful tribe within 24 hours, and he will be picked up (by helicopter or somesuch) then.

The soldier is dropped in the forest, and begins getting his bearings. After a long 20 hours in the forest he notices someone in a small clearing up ahead, they haven’t noticed him. Worried that he may run out of time, he h as time to ask ONE question to find out where he needs to be.

What does he ask?

"Which way to your tribe?"

either tribe would point in the direction to the peace loving tribe.

Q14. The police are called to investigate a suicide. Out of precaution, they knock on the door and get no answer (as expected). They break into the house and find a man sprawled out over a table with an obvious gunshot wound to his head. In his right hand there is a revolver. To his left there is a tape recorder.

The officer in charge played the tape in the recorder, it contained the following message:

“my wife has left me, I have no money and I am just completely worthless. I’ve had enough of the world and I will end my life here” [a gunshot is heard before the tape plays static noise]


The officer immediately set up a cordon around the house and began a murder investigation.


The question – why did the officer start a murder investigation?

He didn’t need to rewind the tape (think about it )


not quite as challenging as the last lot but meh .

a few locigal thinking puzzles thrown in there as well 8)

[SkullzD]

Some was simple, and some toke a bit more thinking.

Could you instead take 1 or 2 days until you say the answers?

Then erveryone could have a go, not only the ones who camp TauOnline :P

And, could we send suggestions of riddles to you?