Death By Marbles

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles and 2 empty bowls and instructs you to divide the 100 marbles into the two bowls. You can divide them however you want as long as all the marbles are in the bowls. You will be blindfolded and the bowls and marbles will be thoroughly mixed. You will then choose a single marble from one of the bowls. If the marble is white, you live. Black and you will be put to death.

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a white marble?

Place one white marble in one bowl and place the rest of the marbles in the other bowl (49 whites, and 50 blacks).

This way you begin with a 50/50 chance of choosing the bowl with one white marble and living. Even if you choose the other bowl, you still have an almost 50% chance of picking one of the 49 white marbles. There are no guarantees in life, but this gives you the best change of surviving.

Posted in Brain Teasers

English and Afrikaans

What is a six-word sentence that has the same meaning and spelling in both English and Afrikaans?

My pen is in my hand. It’s not all that meaningful of a sentence, but it’s the same in English and Afrikaans.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Lies Behind Stars

It cannot be seen, it cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,
Lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
Comes first follows after,
Ends life kills laughter.

Darkness.

Posted in Riddles

I Live In A Busy Place In The City

I live in a busy place in the city,
I’ll let you stay with me for awhile,
If you don’t feed me, I can get you into trouble.

What am I?

A parking meter.

Posted in Riddles

Mountain Covered With Snow

Why doesn’t a mountain covered with snow catch cold?

Because it has a snowcap. ;) I know, it was more joke than riddle, but I found it amusing.

Posted in Riddles

No One Can Reach It

It’s red, blue, purple and green, no one can reach it, not even the queen. What is it?

A rainbow.

Posted in Riddles

Green You Eat It

What is one word that, when it’s green you eat it and when it’s blue you wear it?

Bell. You eat a green bell pepper and you were a blue bell (a flower).

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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

In School Without Learning

I’m in school without learning,
And control from the middle.

What am I?

A fish. They swim in schools and the fish in the middle of a school control the school. The fish on the outside are guided by those in the middle.

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The Cost of Household Hardware

A man went to the hardware store to buy items for his house.

1 would cost $.25
12 would cost $.50
122 would cost $.75

When he left the store he had spent $.75, what did he buy?

House numbers.

Posted in Riddles