Given a corked bottle with only a penny inside, how can you remove the penny without pulling out the cork, breaking the bottle and leaving the cork intact?
Milton shuffled slowly along the shelves browsing books. He finally walked up to the counter and handed the girl a book. She looked at the inside cover and told him it would be $3.75. Milton handed her the money and walked away without the book. The girl watched him leave empty-handed but didn’t try to stop him. Why?
Milton was a forgetful and naughty fellow. He was summoning his courage to approach the counter to return his overdue book. The kindly lass at the counter saw the book was 15 days overdue and had accrued the egregious late fee of $3.75 (25 cents a day). Lesson learned, Milton never returned a book late again.
Two cowboys live next door to each other and both have a corral for their cows in the back. One day they meet at the back of their homes, standing next to a wall dividing their corrals. The first cowboy gets to thinking and asks his neighbor for a cow so he can double his herd. The other cowboys replies, “That’s fine by me partner, cuz then we’ll have the same number of cows?” How many cows does each cowboy own?
Evianna meets a man while attending her mother’s funeral. She becomes infatuated with him and he reciprocates the interest, but he leaves the funeral without giving her any contact information. She tries to locate him but is unsuccessful. Several days later she kills her sister.
Because she’s a psychopath. She killed her sister because she hoped the man would attend the funeral and she would get to see him again. This is one brain teaser that is probably best that you don’t get the correct answer. If you knew the answer right away and thought it was obvious, you may want to talk to someone.
A variation of this brain teaser includes laser printers (they were invented by Gary Starkweather) and bulletproof vests (invented by Casimir Zeglen using silk, though modern vests use Kevlar, so it’s halfway right).