You have a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain. You must cross a river with only one of them at a time. If you leave the fox with the chicken he will eat it; if you leave the chicken with the grain he will eat it. How can you get all three across safely?
Take the chicken over first. Go back and bring the grain next, but instead of leaving the chicken with the grain, come back with the chicken. Leave the chicken on the first side and take the fox with you. Leave it on the other side with the grain. Finally, go back over and get the chicken and bring it over.
A one way street sign. It tells you the correct way to go, is black and white (in the United States), going the wrong way can get you a citation and the sign only has two words on it.
When Julian and Penelope met, one was half the others age plus seven years. Ten years later when they married, Penelope was thirty, but this time one was nine tenths the age of the other. How old was Julian? (No fractions or partial years, whole numbers only).
I am a five-letter word and am feared by most but experienced by all. If you remove my first and last letters I bring life. If you add an ‘r’ between the third and fourth letters I am almost nothing and if you remove the first letter from this new word, I am your home.
Death (eat, dearth, earth). No one can escape death, but many fear it. Removing the first and last letters leaves eat, and we must eat to stay alive. Adding the ‘r’ turns death into dearth, which is scarcity and removing the first letter of dearth leaves earth, where you live, assuming this riddle hasn’t reached extraterrestrials.
A man and his son had a terrible car accident and were rushed to the hospital. The man died on the way, but the son was still barely alive. When they arrived, an old gray surgeon was called in to operate. Upon seeing the young boy, the surgeon said, “I can’t operate – this is my son.”
A man gets ready for bed at 9:45 pm. He makes himself a drink, then turns off the TV and the lights. The night was windy and there was a major storm. The next day he discovers he was the cause of seven deaths. How is this possible?
He lived in a lighthouse as lighthouse keeper. He turned off all the lights by accident, so a ship with 7 passengers couldn’t negotiate the rocky shores. One would think the light switches in a lighthouse would be more clearly marked.
