Only Useful When Full

I am only useful when I’m full,
Yet I am always full of holes.

What am I?

A sieve, used for straining food like pasta.

Posted in Riddles

Throw Away Outside, Cook Inside

You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?

An ear of corn.

Posted in Riddles

I A N Rebus

What does the following rebus represent?

I           A
      N
R           B

Scatterbrain.

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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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Graphical Rebus Five

What does this rebus represent?

Rebus

I Feel the Earth Move

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How to Make the Great Escape

Shawn and Kyle are bunk mates in prison and are desperate to escape. There is an unbarred window high above them, but the walls are smooth and it’s too high for them to reach even when standing on each other’s shoulders. Their cell has no furnishings other than a toilet and even when standing on the toilet and each other’s shoulders, they can’t reach the window.

They’ve tried digging through the dirt floor but the wall extends 50 feet below. How could escape through the window?

Smurf imprisoned

They could dig down with their hands, but it would take too long to dig 50 feet down. Instead, they could pile the dirt they dig up to give them enough height to reach the window. If they put the toilet seat down, they could pile the dirt on top, then get on each other’s shoulders to reach the window. That would mean only one of them would be able to get out. The remaining prisoner could either continue piling dirt to account for the missing guy or the escaped prisoner could come back with a rope to help his mate escape.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Alter By a Single Stroke

How can you alter the following equation by a single stroke to make it correct?

5 + 5 + 5 = 550

5 4 5 + 5 = 550

Add a diagonal line on the top left of the first plus sign to convert + into a 4. You could also put a slash through the equal sign to make ≠ (not equal) but that’s not as cool.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Red Robe and Staff In Hand

I wear a red robe,
With staff in hand,
And a stone in my throat.
Cut me and I weep red tears

What am I?

A cherry

There are a few other variations of this one:

As I went through the garden gap,
Who should I meet but Dick Red-cap!
A stick in his hand, a stone in his throat,
If you’ll tell me this riddle, I’ll give you a groat.
(Said to be the lyrics to A Cherry)

I slipped down a slippery gap,
Found a man with a red cap,
He had a stick in his back and a stone in his belly,
Riddle me this and I’ll give you a penny.

Posted in Riddles

Garlic or Spice

Before any changes I’m a garlic or spice. My first is altered and I’m a hand-warming device. My second is changed and I’m trees in full bloom. The next letter change makes a deathly old tomb. Change the fourth to make a fruit of the vine. Change the last for a chart plotted with lines. What was I? What did I become? What did I turn out to be?

clove
glove
grove
grave
grape
graph

Posted in Riddles

By Odin’s Beard

Some came from the Sun and Moon,
Others from Thor and his hammer are hewn,

By Odin’s beard, and Frigg and Tiw,
The last is Saturn, from which we grew.

What are we?

They are the origins of the names of each day of the week.

Sunday – Sun day.
Monday – Moon day.
Tuesday – Tiw’s or Týr’s day, the god of single combat, son of Odin.
Wednesday – Woden’s or Odin’s day, god of poetry and of the dead.
Thursday – Thor’s day, god of thunder, son of Odin.
Friday – Frigg’s day, goddess of the clouds, wife of Odin.
Saturday – Saturn’s day, god of fertility and agriculture.

Posted in Brain Teasers