Employ Rebus

What does this represent?

EMPLOY_ _ _ T

Men out of work.

Posted in Riddles
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Commonly Forgotten And Sometimes Rotten

I am always with you
But commonly forgotten.
You use me constantly,
And can sometimes be rotten.

What am I?

Air.

Posted in Riddles

What is HIJKLMNO?

HIJKLMNO

What 5-letter word does this represent?

Water. Or literally, H to O, which sounds the same as H2O.

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Having and Sharing

If you have it, you want to share it.
If you share it, you don’t have it.

What is it?

A secret.

Posted in Riddles

Silver Tears Falling Down

Silver tears falling down,
Nature’s clear imposter,
Sparkling, shining like a gown,
Adorn an elephant or horse,
Silver, PVC or even lead,
Bringing cheer to all around,
For such a simple thread.

Tinsel.

Tinsel emulates icicles, which are like tears and are clear in nature. Tinsel sparkles and shines, and is used to adorn elephants and horses in India. Tinsel is made from silver, PVC and was once made from lead. Tinsel brings back fond memories to many (including myself) and represents far more than a simple metallic thread would normally warrant.

Happy Holidays!

Posted in Riddles

An Abandoned Aquarium

There is an abandoned aquarium in an empty house. The aquarium has three large fish and three small fish. But after a week, one large fish and two small fish die.

How many remain in the aquarium?

Six, since no one is there to remove the 3 dead fish.

Posted in Brain Teasers

From Cold To Warm In Four Steps

How do you get from cold to warm in four steps, changing only one letter at a time to form a new word at each step?

cold
cord
word
worm
warm

An alternative is:
cold
cord
word
ward
warm

Yet another option, thanks to Beth:
cold
cord
card
ward
warm

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Sheep’s Will

A farmer dies leaving a will dividing his flock of nineteen sheep with the following ratios:

Half to his oldest son, a quarter to the middle son and one fifth to his youngest son.

Without cutting any sheep up, how did the executor of the will fulfill the farmer’s wishes?

The executor went to the neighbouring farm and asked to borrow a sheep for a few minutes. Then he returned to the sons and said, “Half of the (now) twenty sheep is 10. A quarter of the twenty sheep is 5. A fifth of the twenty sheep is 4. 10 + 5 + 4 = 19. Then the executor took the borrowed 20th sheep back to the neighbour.

Thanks to Annette for sending this in.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Sleep By Day

I sleep by day, I fly by night. I have no feathers to aid my flight. What am I?

A bat.

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Bank Wait Times

Suppose a small bank has one teller and customer transactions take 10 minutes on average. With 5.8 customers arriving per hour, what is the expected wait time? What would it be if you added a second teller?

With one teller, customers will wait nearly five hours on average. But adding a second teller makes the wait go down to 3 minutes.

Thanks to John D. Cook for this one.

Posted in Brain Teasers