“Scram, you can’t catch me!” yelled the thief. While running to escape, his shirt skewered a box of nails. He ripped free, but skidded to a stop as he passed a policeman. He tried to run again, then cowered in fright. Crime doesn’t pay.
A delivery truck from the post office is sent to the airport to meet a cargo plane at its planned arrival time. The plane lands ahead of schedule and its contents are brought toward the post office by bicycle. After a half hour, the bicycle meets the truck and the mail is transferred.
The truck returns from the post office 20 minutes early. How early did the plane arrive? (Assume all transactions are instantaneous)
The delivery truck arrived back 20 minutes early, so it would have taken 20 minutes to go from where it met the bicycle to get to the airport and back. Therefore, the bicycle and truck met when the truck was 10 minutes from the airport. Adding those 10 minutes to the 30 minutes the truck had already driven to meet the bicycle means the plane arrived 40 minutes ahead of schedule.
I am two-faced, but bear one head. Men spill their blood for me. I have no legs but travel widely. I make kings immortal. I am potent when shared, Yet lust for my power keeps me locked away.
Money (coins specifically). Coins have two faces, heads and tails. People fight for money, and money travels far and wide. Kings live on when they’re depticted on a coin. Sharing money with others is a meaningful experience yet many people keep their money locked up.
On a remote (imaginary) island, there are 11 snakes and a single mouse. As you’d expect, snakes eat the mice. But contrary to what you’d expect, when a snake eats a mouse, it turns into one.
The snakes live by only two rules:
1. Don’t get eaten. 2. Eat mice as long as rule #1 isn’t violated.
How many snakes and mice will there be left on the island?
The riddle refers to a variety of meanings of the word fine.
Feeling normal refers to when you feel fine. Extremely thin refers to a fine thread. A punishment refers to being charged a fee. The one who wins refers to an athlete who is physically trained and hardened close to the limit of efficiency. Free from impurity refers to measuring the fineness of precious metals. A keen edge refers to a knife with a fine edge. Refined refers to fine manners or elegance.
Twenty one points divide and dance, Twirling and leaping about, Ladies, Romans and knights of France, Craving a victor’s rout, Wrought of wood, ivory or bone, An exciting yet vicious pursuit, Ancient, forbidden and crooked, All in search of the loot.
A die. The standard die has 21 pips (or points), divided up on the six sides of the die which dance around when rolled. Ladies, knights and Romans all played dice as a pastime (though not together). Dice can be made of wood, ivory and bone, among other materials. Dice have been used in Asia since before recorded history and many governments tried unsuccessfully to outlaw the game. Professional gamblers were common and often used loaded dice. Desperate German chaps even bet their own liberty on a single roll of the dice.
Jeremy was making $10 an hour at his summer job, but he hated the work. He decided to take a 50% pay cut to work at an easier job. He liked his new job at first, then grew bored and found another job paying 50% more than he was currently making. What was his hourly pay at the third job?
Nipples or teats. Cows have four of them, dogs usually have eight and a human (assuming that’s who’s reading this) has two. Cows milk standing up, dogs often lie down and women usually sit when breastfeeding.