Which Do You Light First?

You have a single match and are in a pitch black room with a candle, an oil lamp and a gas stove. Which do you light first?

The match.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Was Not Born

I was not born, but I am here.
I have no name, but I am given many.
I was made by science and life.

What am I?

A clone.

Posted in Riddles
Tagged with

Counterfeit Accounting

Early one morning Hal, the owner of a hardware store, sells a mailbox for $25 to Courtney that cost him $20 wholesale. Courtney pays with a $100 bill and Hal discovers he doesn’t have enough change. He runs to the jewelry shop next door, where Jack, the owner, gives him change in exchange for the $100. Later that afternoon, Jack discovers the $100 bill is a counterfeit and Hal pays him $100 to make it right.

What was Hal’s total loss?

The total loss was $95.
-$20 = The wholesale cost of the mailbox
$100 = The money from Jack
-$75 = The change paid to Courtney
-$100 = To pay Jack back
-$20 + $100 – $75 – $100 = -$95

It’s easy to think Hal lost $195 but that fails to account for the $100 used to make the change, which came from Jack, not Hal. Jack paid $100 in exchange for a worthless piece of paper, so the $100 was initially Jack’s loss. Hal had made a $5 profit until Jack’s discovery. If you guessed $100, that’s arguably correct, but not making $5 in profit isn’t a loss in the strictest sense of the word.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Something Everyone Needs

Everyone needs this, it’s great with an ‘r’ on the end but you’re sad when the first letter goes away.

What is it?

Love, lover, over

Posted in Riddles

The Hand of the Princess

A wise king devised a contest to see who would receive the Princess’ hand in marriage. The Princess was put in a 50 x 50 foot carpeted room. Each of her four suitors were put in one corner of the room with a small box to stand on. The first one to touch the Princess’ hand would be the winner and become the new King.

The rules were the contestants could not walk over the carpet, cross the plane of the carpet, or hang from anything; nor could they use anything but their body and wits (i.e. no magic, telepathy, nor any items such as ladders, block and tackles etc). One suitor figured out a way and married the Princess and became the new King. What did he do?

Asked the princess to touch his hand.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Dead and Bound

Dead and bound,
what once was free.
What made no sound,
Now sings with glee.

What is it?

Any wooden, stringed instrument (guitar, violin, cello, ukulele, etc)

Posted in Riddles

Samuel the Secretive Scotsman

Fill in the blanks with four, four-letter words that all share the same first three letters.

Samuel the secretive Scotsman was dressed to ____ in his twill woven ____. Little did they know he had a ____ of marijuana stashed away as he innocently warmed his hands by the Scotch ____.

kill
kilt
kilo
kiln

Samuel the secretive Scotsman was dressed to kill in his twill woven kilt. Little did they know he had a kilo of marijuana stashed away as he innocently warmed his hands by the Scotch kiln.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Most Unusual Paragraph

This is a most unusual paragraph. How quickly can you find out what is so unusual about it? It looks so ordinary you’d think nothing was wrong with it – and in fact, nothing is wrong with it. It is unusual though. Why? Study it, think about it, and you may find out. Try to do it without coaching. If you work at it for a bit it will dawn on you. So jump to it and try your skill at figuring it out. Good luck! Don’t blow your cool!

The most common letter in the English language, the letter e, is not found in the entire paragraph.

Posted in Riddles

A Perfect Counterfeit

A man can make perfect counterfeit bills. They look exactly like real ones, they’re made of exactly the same materials, made the same way, everything. So perfect, one could pretty much call them real bills. One day he successfully makes a perfect copy of another bill. However, he gets caught when he tries to use the copy. How is this possible?

As a counterfeiter, he had lots of counterfeit bills around and he accidentally used one of them as his original. So he made a perfect copy of a counterfeit bill.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Choose Your Own Death

A prisoner was brought before the King to be executed. The King was in a peppy mood and asked the prisoner how he would like to die. The prisoner told him and the King laughed heartily. The prisoner was released and sent on his way, alive.

What did the prisoner say?

He asked to die of old age.

Posted in Brain Teasers