Riddles 24

Buried Treasure

An old parchment describes the location of buried treasure:”On the island there are only two trees, A and B, and the remains of a gallows. Start at the gallows and count the steps required to walk in a straight line to tree A. At the tree turn 90 degrees to the left and then walk forward the same number of steps. At the point where you top drive a spike into the ground. Now return to the gallows and walk in a straight line, counting your steps, to tree B. When you reach the tree, turn 90 degrees to the right and take the same number of steps forward, placing another spike at the point where you stop. Dig at the point exactly halfway between the spikes and you will find the treasure.”

However, our hero when he gets to the island finds the gallows missing. Is there any way he can still get to the treasure?

A simple experiment with a ruler and paper shows that any position for the gallows leads to the same point.

Dead Man in a Field

There is a dead man in the center of a field.
He carried with him an unopened package.
As he neared the center of the field, he knew he was going to die.
How did he know he was going to die?

The man’s parachute did not open.

In The Stable

In a stable there are men and horses. In all, there are 22 heads and 72 feet. How many men and how many horses are in the stable?

14 horses and 8 men.
14×4 plus 8×2 = 72 feet.

Math Children

A man bumps into his mathematician friend on the street that he hasn’t seen in 5 years. The man asks the mathematician how old his children are. The mathematician, who always replies in riddles said, “I now have three children. The sum of their ages is equal to the number of windows on the building in front of you and the product of their ages equals 36.” The friend then says “I need one more piece of information.” The mathematician then replies “My youngest child has blue eyes.” What are the ages of the mathematicians three children?

They are 6, 6, and 1.

Fancy Book Title

The title of this book has been put into very fancy language. Can you name the book??The objects, or people, have been removed from their previous localities through the power of a naturally moving phenomenon.?

?Gone with the Wind?.

Lazy Daughter

A wealthy wise old woman feared that her daughter was lazy and as a result rather stupid. When the old woman died, her will stipulated that her assets were to be liquidated and a check was to be written for the full amount. The check was to be placed in one of three envelopes. The other two envelopes would contain a blank piece of paper. If the daughter could determine from the writing on the envelope which envelope contained the check, she
would inherit her mother’s fortune. Otherwise, the fortune would go to the old woman’s favorite charity for animals. The daughter was not allowed to touch the envelopes. Her decision had to be made based on the writing on the envelopes. The daughter was told
that only one envelope had a true statement and that the other two statements were false.The envelopes had the following writing:

1. This envelope does not have the check
2. This envelope has the check
3. The second envelope does not have the check

Which envelope should the daughter pick?

The daughter should pick envelope 1. Unfortunately she picked envelope 3. Statements 1 and 2 were false, and the only true statement was statement 3.If the check was in envelope 1, that would make statement 1 false, statement 2 false and statement 3 is the only true statement.

If the check was in envelope 2, statements 1 and 2 would both be true.

If the check was in envelope 3, statements 1 and 3 would both be true.

Three Trees

The names of three trees are hidden in the sentences below. The letters are in consecutive order. Can you find them?On this farm, we get ham from a hog any time. The farmer will help in every possible way. He faced two very similar choices, both bad.

Mahogany, pine and larch.

Money Talks

A wealthy man named Richard Ellis had been counting his money. When he finished, he accidentally left a $100.00 bill on his desk. But when he returned for it a short while later, it was gone. Only two other people could have seen the bill. One was the maid; the other was the butler.The maid told him that she had hidden it for safe-keeping under a green book that was on the desk. But when they looked the bill was not there.

The butler said he had found the bill where the maid had left it. He had placed it inside the book, where he thought there was less chance that somebody would find it. He had written down the page numbers so that he would not forget them. The bill was between pages 35 and 36, he said. But when they looked, there was no money in the book.

After Mr. Ellis had talked to the maid and the butler, he called the police. He knew who had taken the money. Who was it, and how did he know?

The butler did it. Mr. Ellis knew the butler was lying because pages 35 and 36 in a book are always printed on opposite sides of the same piece of paper.

Lazy Larry

Lazy Larry agreed to work on a job for his brother-in-law for thirty hours at eight dollars an hour, on the condition that he would forfeit ten dollars per hour for every hour that he idled. At the end of the thirty hours Larry wasn’t owed any money and didn’t owe his brother-in-law any money either. How many hours did Larry work and how many hours did he idle?

Lazy Larry worked 16-2/3 hours and idled 13-1/3 hours. 16-2/3 hours, at $8.00 an hour amounts to the same amount as 13-1/3 hours at $10.00 per hour.

Boiling An Egg

You want to boil a two-minute egg. If you only have a three-minute timer (hourglass), a four-minute timer and a five-minute timer can you boil the egg for only two minutes?

Once the water is boiling, turn the three-minute timer and five-minute timer over. When the three-minute timer runs out, put the egg in the boiling water. When the five-minute timer runs out, two minutes have elapsed and it is time take the egg out of the water. You don’t need the four-minute timer for this riddle.

Baby Boomers

Five baby boomer couples each have one child.
Each child is a different age than any of the other children.
Each child has a favorite toy which is different from any of the other children’s favorite toys.
Each family eats at only one fast food restaurant.
No two women have the same name and no two men have the same name.
The children’s names are not known.The child who plays with trains is the youngest.
Bill’s child plays with GI Joe.
Julie’s child likes Pokeman.
Mike’s family eats at Taco Bell.
The family of the 4 year old likes Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The oldest child is four years older than Marie’s child.
The child who plays with Barbie is 8 years old.
The child with the age is in the middle, has a mother named Marie.
The child in the family that eats at McDonalds has a two year age difference with Larry’s child.
Carol is the mother in the family that eats at Dairy Queen.
The child that plays Nintendo likes Burger King.
Steve’s child is two years apart in age from the child of the family that eats at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The child that plays with trains is two years apart from the 6 year old.
The child that eats at McDonalds is two years older or younger than Regina’s child.
Lisa’s child is 10.

Who is married to George?

Lisa is married to George, and their 10 year old plays with Nintendo. They like to eat at Burger King.The associations are:

Child age 4, mother Regina, Father Larry, trains, KFC
Child age 6, mother Julie, Father Steve, Pokeman, McDonalds
Child age 8, mother Marie, Father Mike, Barbie, Taco Bell
Child age 10, mother Lisa, Father George, Nintendo, Burger King
Child age 12, mother Carol, Father Bill, GI Joe, Dairy Queen

To solve, draw a grid with five rows and five columns. Across the top, above the columns, write Age, Mother, Father, Toy and Food.

Figure out the known ages and write them in order in the first column.

One child’s age is unknown at first. However, once the youngest child is discovered (the one who plays with trains) it is then known that the oldest child is the child with the unknown age.
Through additional clues, it is possible to determine that the oldest child is age 12.

Take the clue, Lisa?s child is 10. In the mother column corresponding to the age 10, you would write LISA (Maybe circle it, because it is the correct answer.) In the mother column for every other age, write “not Lisa”. Do this for each clue. If you know the answer because of a clue, write it in the appropriate column, and then be sure to write “not such and such” in all the other rows for that clue.

For example, “The youngest child plays with trains”, would result in “not trains” for any child you can tell isn?t the youngest, but you can?t write “trains” for any child, because you don?t
know which child is the youngest at first.

Eventually, you may find that “mother not Marie” is on every line except one, and then you would know that Marie is the mother on the empty line.

Horse Race

“Times are hard in a small rural town, business is slowing and people are moving out. It so happens that there are two horse-dealerships in town. Unfortunately there’s only enough people to support one of the dealerships. So the two owners meet and decide that one of them must leave town. Since neither of them want to leave they devise a competition to see who gets to stay. It is decided that they will race their horses across town. Now they don’t want to damage their horses, so they change the race rule so that whoever?s horse crosses the finish post LAST wins the race and gets to stay in town. So the next day they set off. Both are ambling along, taking rests and getting nowhere nearer to finishing. After a few hours a wise old man tells them to dismount and gives them some advice. After which the two sprint back to the horses, get on and gallop towards the finish line. Assuming that the race rules were not changed – what advice did the old man give them ?”

Simply to swap horses (whereby getting across the finish line first would ensure that the riders horse crossed last).

Needle

How can you make a needle float?

Take a thin piece of tissue paper and place the tissue paper under the needle before putting the needle in the water. The tissue paper will eventually sink and the needle will remain floating.

Six Faces

What has six faces,
But does not wear makeup.
It also has twenty-one eyes,
But cannot see?

A die (dice).

In The Grocery Store

In the grocery store, Sal met his only daughter?s only husband?s mother-in-law?s only mother-in-law. Who was she?

Sal?s mother. (His son-in-law?s mother-in-law was his wife; her mother-in-law was Sal?s mother.)

Hard Job

Tom volunteered to be the chief organizer for the world’s tether ball championships. There were 657 contestants from around the world. The tournament was set up whereby the
winner would advance and the loser would be eliminated. Since there was an odd number of participants, the initial pairing leaves one player out. That player gets a bye and automatically advances to the next round. How many matched will Tom have to schedule to determine the tether ball champion?

656 matches will be needed.

Double Letters

What English word has three consecutive double letters?

Bookkeeper.

Marking Where I Go

I usually wear a yellow coat.
I usually have a dark head.
I make marks wherever I go.
What am I?

A pencil.

A United State

My first is often at the front door.
My second is found in the cereal family.
My third is what most people want.
My whole is one of the United States.

Matrimoney. (mat + rye + money).Matrimony is certainly a “united state”!

Jelly Beans and Licorice Sticks

If 10 bags of jelly beans and 6 licorice sticks cost $1, and 10 licorice sticks and 6 jelly bean bags cost 92 cents, how much does one licorice stick cost?

5 cents. Jelly bean bags cost 7 cents.