On a remote (imaginary) island, there are 11 snakes and a single mouse. As you’d expect, snakes eat the mice. But contrary to what you’d expect, when a snake eats a mouse, it turns into one.
The snakes live by only two rules:
1. Don’t get eaten. 2. Eat mice as long as rule #1 isn’t violated.
How many snakes and mice will there be left on the island?
Thanks to the comments, it doesn’t mean anything per se, but it’s a location in Zambia. If that’s all it is, it’s not really a brain teaser, but since we’ve already worked on it, I’m marking it as solved leaving it up for posterity.
Below are former attempts to solve it.
I have yet to figure this one out. NDOLA could mean And lo, or An old, among other things. Pamodzi on the other hand didn’t have any particularly meaningful anagrams. Both words together had over 1,000 anagrams.
I haven’t come up with any other possible meanings.
Alphonso and his sister Sadie are entering the airport to meet their mother when Sadie gasps in surprise and says to her brother, “You see that man in the crowd over there?”
Alphonso replies, “It’s Bernie. I don’t believe it. Let’s go introduce ourselves.”
Neither of them had ever met Bernie before. They’d never seen a picture or painting of him, nor was he a famous celebrity.
Alphonso was born as a twin, but he was separated from his twin brother at birth. Bernie is Alphonso’s identical twin, which is how Sadie was able to recognize him in the crowd.
This is kind of a cheat, because there are probably other possible explanations. But we can’t have everything :)
7. The digits represent the number of letters in each word of the puzzle. “What” has four letters, “digit” has five letters, “should” has six letters, etc. The last word is “numbers” which has seven letters.
Kneel in the kayak grasping the boat, but don’t wrench the bullion or scowl at the chart. Behind the taped and sealed planter is a benevolent collier. The foxglove is in the bath.
1. Eel 2. Yak 3. Asp 4. Boa 5. Wren 6. Bull 7. Lion 8. Cow 9. Owl 10. Hart 11. Hind 12. Ape 13. Seal 14. Ant 15. Vole 16. Collie 17. Fox 18. Ox 19. Bat
A lemon. It’s a citrus fruit whose juice is acidic and can be used to conduct electricity for motors. A car or other purchase that has problems is known as a lemon and can be expensive to repair. Lemons have a tart flavor but do little harm (unless you get it in a cut, then it hurts like the dickens). The old saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” (I know, it’s spelled aid not ade but it sounds the same and wouldn’t make any sense the other way. It all works out nicely when the riddle is told instead of read.)
My first is in alphabet, my third is in Guinness, my sixth is in donut and my eighth is in elephant. My fifth doesn’t appear in walrus, my second isn’t in stealth, but my seventh is in tremendous and my fourth is in horse. I can create peace.