AJ’s Riddle Set

A Simple One:

I look through a railing

I saw a ship sailing
What was the captain’s name.

I told you before

I’ll tell you no more
What was the captain’s name?

The Twins.

You’re going through a jungle; you come to a fork in the road, one way leads to the way
out, the other leads to sudden death. In the middle of the fork there is a house with twins.
One twin always tells the truth, the other always lies. One of them comes out, you don’t
know which. You may ask one question to be able to get out safely. What is this
question?

The burning rope challenge.

There exists a type of rope which has variable density. This means that the first half of
the rope doesn’t necessarily weigh the same as the other half of the rope. We know one
thing about this rope; if you light one end of it with a lighter, it will take exactly 1 hour to
burn. Since the rope does not have uniform density, it is POSSIBLE that the first inch of
the rope will take 59 minutes to burn, and the rest of it will take 1 minute to burn. This
simply means that we do not know HOW the rope will burn, although we know that in
total, it will take 1 hour. You have two of such ropes; they are not necessarily the same,
although each takes 1 hour to burn. You have as many lighters as you wish. How can
you burn these ropes such that you will know when 45 minutes is up?

The Census Taker:

A census taker is doing a survey. He goes to a house as rings the doorbell. A woman
answers the door. He says to the women, “Excuse me but may I ask how many children
you have, and how old they are?” The women is slightly strange, she does not like to
answer questions directly, so she responds: “Yes, I have 3 children, the sum of their ages
equals the address number of the house next door and the product of their ages is 36.”
The census taker then leaves the house, visits the next door neighbour’s house, then
comes back to the same house and rings the doorbell again. The same women from
before answers the door and the census taker tells her “You haven’t given me enough
information”. The women replies, “I’m sorry, I can’t talk now; my youngest son is
sleeping upstairs.” The census taker then replies “Thank-you, that is all the information I
needed.” How old is each child?
A variation of the Twins riddle:

A man is on a journey searching for the village of truth. He comes to a fork in the road.
One direction will lead him to the village of truth and the other direction will lead him to
the village of lies. Standing in front of him is a man; the original man wants to know
which village he is from. What is the one question he can ask that will always lead him to
the village of truth?

Quick easy one:

What’s more powerful than god, more evil than the devil; poor people have it; rich people
don’t want it and if you eat it you will die.

Interview Time:

Want to be a Microsoft employee? This is the actual test given by Microsoft to

prospective employees at interviews. This is solvable without any tricks.

"U2" has a concert that starts in 17 minutes and they must all cross a bridge to get there.
All four men begin on the same side of the bridge. You must help them across to the
other side. It is night. There is one flashlight. A maximum of two people can cross at one
time. Any party who crosses, either 1 or 2 people, must have the flashlight with them.
The flashlight must be walked back and forth, it cannot be thrown, etc. Each band
member walks at a different speed. A pair must walk together at the rate of the slower
man's pace:
Bono: - 1 minute to cross
Edge: - 2 minutes to cross
Adam: - 5 minutes to cross
Larry: - 10 minutes to cross

For example: If Bona and Larry walk across first, 10 minutes have elapsed when they get
to the other side of the bridge. If Larry then returns with the flashlight, a total of 20
minutes have passed and you have failed the mission.

Notes: - There is no trick behind this. It is the simple movement of resources in the
appropriate order. There are two known answers to this problem.
*Microsoft expects you to answer this question in under 4 minutes.

The Doctor:

A man is driving with his son down a highway in his car. They get into a car
accident and two separate ambulances from two separate hospitals take the man
and his son to their respective hospitals. The doctor walks into the
operating room, looks at the boy, and says, "I can't operate on this boy,
he's my son." How can this be?
Another quick one:

Tear one off and scratch my head. What once was black is now red. What am I?

Five things:

We're five little items of an everyday sort, and you'll find us all in a tennis court. What
are we?

Poor man:

There was a man who was pushing his car around the corner, stopped in front of a hotel,
and lost all of his money. Why?

The jailbird and the visitor:

A man goes to visit another man in jail, the guard tells the visitor that
only family members are allowed to visit inmates, the visitor declares
"Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man’s father is my father’s son."
Who is the visitor in relation to the jailbird?

What am I?

I have teeth, but I cannot swallow. I have a tongue but I cannot taste. I like meat but I
cannot drink wine. What am I?

The real hanging man riddle:

The sheriff shivered as he walked into the cold building. He hated these early morning
calls and the sun was barely up after a freezing morning rain. As his eyes grew
accustomed to the dim light he saw that a man had been hung from a rope; his feet
dangling three feet off the ground. Upon examination of the body it was determined the
man had been dead less than three hours.

The sheriff's deputy walked in, turned on the lights and surveyed the scene. The dead
man was hanging from a rope tied to the rafters some twenty-five feet in the air. There
was no way to climb to the rafters and was nothing in the building that the man could
have used to stand on while tying a rope around his neck. The building was empty except
for the rope and the dead man. The deputy studied a large puddle of water a foot to the
right of the hanging corpse.

The deputy announced "it is obviously a suicide disguised as murder. Most likely
disguised to allow for a life insurance payment." In spite of the serious situation, the
sheriff grinned and said he knew what the young deputy was thinking, but said it was
definitely murder. What was the deputy thinking and why did the sheriff insist that it was
murder? Who was right?

Another dead guy question.

A man is in the middle of the desert lying dead with a pack on his back. He did not die of
hunger or dehydration and he was not murdered, he hadn’t even been in the desert for
that long. How did he die?

The bridge and the balls:

There is a bridge and you need to get yourself and 3 balls across it, but the bridge can
only support yourself and 2 balls at one time. There is a way to get yourself and the 3
balls across the bridge at the same time. How?

A word riddle:

There are two words in the English language that have 3 sets of double letters that are
directly adjacent to each other...each set being unique (i.e. aabbcc not aabbaa)...one of the
words happens to be the root word of the other word...what are they?

Two rooms and a lightbulb:

There were two rooms. The room you are in has no windows and three switches; the
other room has one lightbulb. You cannot see under or anywhere around the door that
goes to the room with the bulb. You may go into the room with the light bulb only once.
How do you figure out which switch controls the lightbulb?

The riddle of the Sphinx:

What has 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon and 3 legs at night?

Marriage:

Is it legal in New York to marry your widow's sister?

Dirt.

If dirt weighs 100lbs. per cubic foot, what is the weight of the dirt in a hole 2ft. square
and 2ft. deep?

The Beginning of every end:

The beginning of eternity

The end of time and space
The beginning of every end,
And the end of every place.
Bees and Flowers:

In a pond there are some flowers with some bees hovering over the flowers. How many
flowers and bees are there if both the following statements are true?
1. If each bee lands on a flower, one bee doesn't get a flower.
2. If two bees share each flower, there is one flower left out.

Number Sequence:

The following numbers are a number sequence. Provide the next sequence:

1
11
21
1211
111221

Riddle of Facts:

1.There are 5 houses in 5 different colors.

2.In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
3.These 5 owners drink a certain beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a
certain pet.
4.No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same drink.

Hints:

1.The Brit lives in a red house.

2.The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3.The Dane drinks tea.
4.The green house is on the left of the white house.
5.The green house owner drinks coffee.
6.The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7.The owner of the yellow house smoke Dunhill.
8.The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9.The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10.The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11.The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12.The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13.The German smokes Prince.
14.The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15.The man who smokes Blend Has a neighbor who drinks water.

The question is: Who keeps fish?

The old miner:

An old miner needed some help to haul his gold to the bank. He hired ten men to haul his
gold down from a mine. Each hired man had a donkey and hauled ten gold bars down the
mountains. Each gold bar weighed twenty pounds. It was a three-day trip. During the
trip, one of the hired help told the miner he had heard that one of the men was planning
on stealing some gold by shaving one pound of gold from each bar his donkey was
carrying. Upon reaching town, the miner used the local truck scale one time and
identified the thief. How did the miner do this?

The warden and the prisoners.

A warden decides to play a game with three prisoners. He puts a tag on each of their
backs in such a way that each prisoner can see the others' tags, but cannot see the tag on
their own back. He tells the prisoners that at least one of their tags is white. If their tag is
white, they can go free; however, if their tag is black and they try to leave they will be
shot. One particularly intelligent prisoner looks at his comrades' tags and sees that the
tags are both white. He thinks for a full minute, and then walks out the door to freedom.
How did he know his tag was white? Assume that each prisoner has one year left in his
sentence, and is therefore unwilling to risk his life to escape. No communication between
the prisoners is possible. There are only black and white tags.

The Butcher:

A butcher is 5'6"...what does he weigh?

Clever word riddle:

First, think of a person who lives in disguise,

Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.
Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend,
the middle of middle, and end of end?
Finally, give me the sound often heard,
during the search for a hard-to-find word.
Now string them together, and answer me this,
What creature would you be unwilling to kiss?

11+2=1???

When does eleven plus two equal one?

What is it?

Taller than the tallest tree,

Yet lighter than the lightest bee.
You see it here, you see it there,
You see it almost everywhere.
Like the chameleon, it changes colors,
Red, purple, blue and others.
It was there at dawning light,
It will be there at deep, dark night.

Fishing:

Two fathers and two sons went fishing together one day. Each person caught one fish, but
only three fish were caught altogether. How is this?

Home?

A man leaves home, makes three left turns, then returns home and finds two masked men
waiting for him. Who are they?

True or False?
Consider the following 2 sentences:

The following sentence is false. The preceding sentence is true.

True or False?
Both of the sentences cannot be true or both of them cannot be false.

What is it?

Whoever makes it doesn't use it, whoever buys it doesn't want it and whoever uses it
doesn't know it?

What am I?

Remove the outside

cook the inside
eat the outside
throw away the inside
what am I?

How well do you know your language?

What five letter English word does not change it's pronunciation when four letters are
taken away?

Shopping at the Hardware Store:

In a hardware store a customer asks the price of an article on display. Practically every
hardware store carries this article and no home should be without it. The following
conversation takes place:

Clerk: The price is $4 each.

Customer: That means it would cost $12 for 100?
Clerk: That's right.
Customer: Ok, well I need 57.
Clerk: Certainly, that will be $8 please.

The conversation is correct. What is the article?

What is it?

This thing runs but cannot walk, sometimes sing but never talks.
Lacks arms, has hands; lacks a head but has a face. What is it?

What is it?

In a tunnel of darkness lies a beast of iron. It can only attack when pulled back. What is
it?

What is it?

What lives in winter, dies in summer and grows with its roots upwards?

The Search:

I can attract your attention with ease,

And cause you to struggle on,
For you will be searching to find me,
Until, from your thoughts, I am gone.

If you are unable to find me at last,

You will think when I am seen,
But if you find me quickly,
You have proven to be quite keen.

What am I?

Hmmmm:

Say my name and I am gone. What am I?

Math anyone?
You have 100 dollars.
You must spend 100 dollars.
You must buy 100 animals.
Cows are 10 dollars each.
Pigs are 3 dollars each.
Chickens are 50 cents each.
You must buy at least one of each animal.
How many of each animal do you buy?

What does this say?

YYURYYUBICURYY4ME

It is a message from the riddle to those who have solved it.

Not as obvious as you think.

If a bottle and a bottlecap cost 55 cents together and the bottle costs 50 cents more then
the cap, how much does the bottle cost and how much does the cap cost?

The old “Dog, cat and bird” riddle:

You and your three loving pets need to cross a wide river; there are some problems that
present themsevles as follows:
-The boat you have will only allow you to take one pet at time.
-Your three pets happen to be a bird, a dog and a cat.
-As loving as they are, if the bird is left alone with the cat, the cat will get the bird.
-If the cat is left alone with the dog, the dog will get the cat.
How do you get the pets and yourself to the other side all alive? You may only travel by
boat and there is only enough room to take one pet with you at a time.

Legs:
6 guys, each guy has
6 sacks, each sack has
6 cats, each cat has
6 kittens.
How many legs?

The Growing Tree

A tree which is planted on Monday and doubles in size each day, it is fully-grown on the
following Sunday. On what day is it half grown?

For those who are stumped by most of these riddles:

You need some confidence, try this riddle:

What is poop spelled backwards?

What am I?

I eat things.
I spit them out.
I'm in your car, your house.
I can be as quiet as a mouse.
Or as loud as a canon.
What am I?

Huh?

Everyday within our lives,

A day follows a day,
Like today follows yesterday.
But there is a place,
When yesterday follows today.

Fruits:

An orange costs $0.18, a pineapple costs $0.27, and a grape costs $0.15. What does a
mango cost?

How Old Are Julie and Jason?

The total ages of Julie and Jason are 44 years. Julie is twice as old as Jason was when
Julie was half as old as Jason will be when Jason is three times as old as Julie was when
Julie was three times as old as Jason. How old are Julie and Jason?

The Death of the Rich Gypsy:

A rich Gypsy Horse Trader, on his deathbed, instructs to leave 17 beautiful white horses
to be divided amongst his three sons. The only condition was that the division be carried
out as follows:

Eldest (sensible) son to have two-thirds of the horses.

Second son to have one-sixth of the horses.
Third son (unworthy son) to have only one-ninth of the horses.

After the Gypsy’s death, the sons tried all sorts of calculations, but there was no way it
would work out. They were almost at the point of fighting, or selling the horses and
dividing the money, when the eldest came up with the idea to come and talk to you.
Keeping the horses alive, and knowing there IS a way, what do you suggest? You have
your own horses, but you do not lose or gain any.

Pure Math Baby:

Make the following number equal 60. You may use any math symbol between each
number (+, -, x, / or any other math symbol) and parenthesis in the equation. Keep the
numbers in the same order as shown.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 60

What am I?

I can be shaped into any form,

I am fragile yet strong enough
To keep cold out and heat in,
What am I?

What am I?

They call me a man, but I'll never have a wife.

I was given a body, but not given life.
They made me a mouth, but didn't give me breath.
Water gives me life and sun brings me death.
What am I?

Relatives:

JR is always challenging their dinner guests to identify various family members. At a

party, JR makes the following statement:

"One of my blood relatives, who is named Adam, is a nephew of the father of the only
cousin of the uncle of the only grandson of the only brother and only sibling of my only
cousin's mother. What relation is Adam to me?"

True or False?

Which of the following statements are true, and which are false?

1. Only one of the statements is false

2. Exactly two of the statements are false.
3. Only three of the statements are false.
4. Exactly four of the statements are false.
5. All five of these statements are false.

Magnetism:
There are two bars of iron. One bar is magnetized along its length, while the other is not.
Using just the two bars, without any other items, how can you tell which bar is
magnetized and which bar is not?

What am I?

I can be as tender as a newborn,

Or as strong and harsh as a bear,
I can be the reason for your joy,
Or the cause of your despair.

Some may hide me from others,

Yet from hiding I may peek,
And at times; when I cannot be hidden,
I may control the words you speak.

What am I?

What are they?

At night they come without being fetched,

And by day they are lost without being stolen.

What is it?

What is put on the table, cut, but never eaten?

Why not throw a joke in there:

A guy walks into a quiet bar carrying three ducks – one in each hand and one under his
left arm. He places them on the bar, has a few drinks, and chats with the bartender.
The Bartender is experienced and has learned not to ask people about the animals that
they bring into the bar, so he doesn’t mention the ducks. He and the guy chat for about 30
minutes before the guy has to go to the restroom.
Now, the bartender is alone with the ducks. After an awkward silence, he decides to try to
make conversation. “What’s your name?” he says to one of the ducks.
“Huey,” answers the first duck.
“How’s your day been, Huey?”
“Great. Lovely day. Had a ball. Been in and out of puddles all day.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” says the bartender. Then he says to the second duck, “And what’s your
name?”.
“Dewey,” comes the answer. “So how’s your day been, Dewey?”
“Great. Lovely day. Had a ball. Been in and out of puddles all day. If I had the chance, I
would do it all again.”
So the bartender turns to the third duck and says, “So, you must be Louie.”
“No,” growls the third duck, “my name is Puddles. And don’t ask about my day.”

Alpha-Riddle:

A EF HI KLMN T VWXY

--------------------------
BCD G J OPQRS U

Can you figure out where to put the letter Z,

top or bottom line and WHY?

Alpha-Riddle 2:

W I T N L I T _?

What is the next letter in this sequence?