The Great Book of Riddles: 250 Magnificent Riddles, Puzzles and Brain Teasers (Elsinore Puzzles)

by Peter Keyne

  The evening before the draw, word reached the statesman that his opponents had replaced the “Pardon” slip with another marked “Exile”. The statesman would have no opportunity to inform the authorities of what had happened. He would have to draw a single slip from the jar, in full knowledge that it was certain to read “Exile”.

  By what course of action could the statesman ensure that he received a pardon?

  9. Calendar Cubes

  A teacher keeps two cubes on her desk. Each has six different single-digit numbers printed on it (one on each side of the cube). She is able to arrange the cubes so the day of the month can be displayed each day for her pupils to see.

  What digits must be on each cube for the teacher to display every day in the month from 01 to 31.

  10. Dot Square

  A “dot square” is a set of four dots that together form the corners of a square. How many dot squares appear between the twelve dots in the image below?

  Answers: Round 20

  1. House numbers; they bought three.

  2. He plans to pile up the dirt he clears from his tunnelling until he is able to reach the unbarred window.

  3. The four men are not playing cards; they are musicians.

  4. They are two of three triplets.

  5. The parrot is deaf.

  6. 300. Look again at the arrangement of the volumes. If the bookworm begins its tunnel at the first page of Volume I, it will not travel through any pages in that volume, but straight through its front cover into Volume II. The bookworm then tunnels through all 300 pages of Volume II. Finally, it travels through the front cover of Volume II and the back cover of Volume III to arrive at the final page of the trilogy.

  7. Draw a marble from the box mislabelled “both black and white”. If it is black, you know that the box contains only black marbles. This is enough information to determine that the box mislabelled “white”, must contain both black and white marbles; and that the box mislabelled “black”, must contain only white marbles.

  Similar reasoning applies if the initial marble you draw is white.

  8. He must draw one of the slips and immediately destroy or swallow it. The authorities will then have to draw the other slip, and when they see it is marked “Exile”, they will assume he drew a slip marked “Pardon”.

  9. The teacher must use a reversed “6” to represent “9”.

  There are then several possible combinations.

  Here is one:

  First cube: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

  Second cube: 0, 1, 2, 6 (9), 7, and 8.

  10. Eleven. Five small squares are easily visible. However, there are also four medium sized squares, and two large squares.

  *Illustrations

  Round 21: The Tale’s the Thing: Lateral Thinking Puzzles 2

  1. Political Intrigue

  Two politicians are invited to a bar by one of their political opponents. When they arrive, their host is already waiting, and there is a cocktail pitcher on the table. The two politicians pour themselves drinks. To relax his nerves, the first politician drains his in one go. The second politician enjoys his over the course of the evening. As they leave the restaurant, the second politician collapses.

  Can you explain why?

  2. Disappearing Act

  A horse jumped over a tower and landed on a man. The man disappeared.

  How could this have happened?

  3. An Odd Assembly of Objects

  You are walking across a field in the countryside when you notice an unusual collection of items lying in a heap on the ground. There are nine pieces of coal, a carrot, a scarf, and two snapped branches.

  What are they doing there?

  4. A Stranger in the Car

  A man and woman were driving quickly along a road. The man suddenly pulled the car over, told the woman he would come straight back and rushed into a large building. The doors of the car were all locked, and all of the windows were up, and yet when then man returned, the woman was unconscious, and there was a stranger in the car with her. The man embraced the stranger.

  Who is the stranger and how did they enter the car?

  5. Card Sharks

  A police unit raids a house to arrest a suspected criminal. They have no idea what the man looks like, but they know that he is currently inside the house, and that his name is Michael.

  The raid interrupts a game of poker. Around the table are an electrician, a carpenter, a fireman, and a politician. The police immediately know that the carpenter is Michael and arrest him without asking any questions of the others.

  How did they correctly identify the suspect?

  6. The Doomed Hunter

  A hunter in Alaska sights his prey and takes up his gun. He is so deep into the wilderness that no other humans will even hear the shot. He aims carefully, and fires. It is a perfect shot, but he instantly realizes it was a serious mistake. Minutes later he is dead.

  What happened?

  7. Mountain Cabin

  A cabin is discovered at the edge of a mountain precipice. The door has been locked from the inside and needs to be forced open. Fifty people are found dead inside. They had blankets and large quantities of food and water.

  How did they die?

  8. A Busy Platform

  A train pulls in alongside a crowded platform. It is precisely on schedule. The train is not full, and yet nobody boards it. All trains that stop at the platform travel to the same destinations. Why then did nobody board the train?

  9. Waiting at Home

  This puzzle may be more difficult for readers outside of North America.

  A man leaves home and starts running. He takes three left turns. When he returns, he sees two men wearing masks. They have been expecting him.

  Who are they?

  10. The True Champion

  In a closely contested race, the judges call for a photo finish to determine the winner. It becomes clear that Alfonso crossed the line in first place, just ahead of Samuel. None of the judges dispute this, and yet they award the trophy to Frankie, who crossed the line in third place. Alfonso and Samuel have not broken the rules or done anything that might prejudice the judges against them.

  So why does Frankie receive the trophy?

  Answers: Round 21

  1. He had been poisoned. The poison was in the pitcher’s ice cubes, and as the first politician finished his drink before the ice could melt, he was unaffected.

  2. It is a game of chess: a knight has jumped over a castle to take a pawn.

  3. The items were part of a snowman that has now melted.

  4. The woman was in labor, and they were rushing to the hospital. By the time the man returned to the car with a doctor, the woman had given birth, and then passed out through fatigue. The stranger is the man’s child.

  5. Michael is the only man in the room. The electrician, fireman and politician are all women.

  6. He fired the shot from within a snow covered ravine. It causes an avalanche.

  7. It is an aircraft cabin, and the plane crashed into the mountain.

  8. It is a model train, and the platform is crowded with figurines.

  9. The Catcher and the Umpire. The man is playing baseball.

  10. Alfonso and Samuel are horses. Frankie is riding Alfonso, and is thus the first person to cross the finish line.

  *Illustrations

  Round 22: Contradictories

  1. Light as a Feather

  What is as light as a feather but cannot be held for ten minutes by even the strongest men alive?

  2. A Never-ending Supply

  What is it that the more you take, the more you leave behind?

  3. An Enemy of Wind

  My life can be measured in hours,

  I serve by being devoured.

  Thin, I am quick.

  Fat, I am slow.

  Wind is my foe.

  4. Daily Decapitation

  What loses a head in the morning, but gains a head at night?

  5. Travel Compan
ion

  I begin my journey when yours is done;

  And yet I take you with me.

  My companions never have a word for me,

  Not even when we part, which is always forever.

  What am I?

  6. World Traveler

  What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?

  7. Tireless Stamina

  What always runs and never walks,

  Often murmurs, never talks,

  Has a bed but never sleeps,

  Has a mouth but never eats?

  8. Stationary Speed

  Two bodies I have,

  Though both joined in one.

  The more still I stand,

  The faster I run.

  9. A Lonely Mute

  I have an end but no beginning, a home but no family, a space but no room. I never speak, and yet there is no word I can’t produce.

  10. Question and Answer

  Question:

  What does man love more than life,

  And fear more than death or mortal strife?

  Answer:

  What the poor have, the rich require,

  And what contented men desire,

  What the miser spends and the spendthrift saves

  And all men carry to their graves.

  Answers: Round 22

  1. One’s Breath

  2. Footsteps

  3. A Candle

  4. A Pillow

  5. A Hearse

  6. A Stamp

  7. A River

  8. An Hourglass

  9. A Keyboard

  10. Nothing

  *Illustrations

  Round 23: Coins, Cups and Toothpicks 2

  1. Adjacent Coins

  Arrange five coins in alternating order as above. The challenge is to rearrange them so that the three larger coins are all to the left of the two smaller coins. This can be achieved in four moves.

  For each move you must place your index and middle finger on two adjacent coins, one of which is large and one of which is small. You may then move the coins to another location along the line (without switching the two coins around during the move). Good luck!

  2. Coin Cross

  Arrange six coins in the formation shown.

  How can you create two rows of four coins each, by moving only one coin?

  3. Counterfeit Coin

  There are nine coins in front of you. Although they appear to be identical, you know that one of them is a counterfeit, and slightly lighter than the others.

  Fortunately, you have a balance scale with which to weigh the coins against each other.

  How many weighings are necessary to identify the counterfeit?

  4. Trapped Coin

  A coin is dropped into an empty bottle and a cork is then inserted in the neck of the bottle. How is it possible to remove the coin without taking out the cork, or breaking the bottle?

  5. Half-Full or Half-Empty?

  There is a glass of milk on the kitchen table, and a brother and sister are arguing about whether it is half-full, or half-empty. The glass is a right cylinder.

  Without any measuring implements and without removing any milk from the glass, how can they easily determine who is correct?

  6. Three Squares

  How can you remove six toothpicks to leave exactly three squares, and at the same time incorporate every remaining toothpick in part of at least one square?

  7. Coin in a Glass

  By moving only two toothpicks, how can you remove the coin from the glass, but still leave the glass in tact?

  8. Toothpick Mathematics

  How can you correct this sum by moving only one toothpick?

  9. Toothpick Cat — A Puzzle by Martin Gardner

  By moving only two toothpicks, how can you change 100 into CAT?

  10. Toothpick Giraffe — A Puzzle by Martin Gardner

  Here, the challenge is to make the giraffe walk in a different direction by moving only one toothpick.

  Answers: Round 23

  1. One possible solution:

  2. Move the coin at the bottom of the cross two places up.

  3. Two.

  You should divide the coins into three equal piles. Next select two of the piles and place them on either side of the scale. If the scale tips, the counterfeit is among the three coins in the lighter pile; if it does not tip, it is in the pile of coins you haven’t yet weighed. You can now put six coins aside.

  Of the three remaining coins, select two and place them on either side of the scale. By following the same process of reasoning as before, you will identify the counterfeit.

  4. Push the cork into the bottle and shake the coin out.

  5. They should tilt the glass until the milk just touches the lip. If the bottom of the glass is visible, then it is less than half-full. If the bottom is still completly covered by milk, then it is more than half-full.

  6. Here are two possible solutions.

  7. The key here is to push the horizontal toothpick sideways.

  8.

  9.

  10.

  *Illustrations

  Round 24: Words, Words, Words 3

  1. A Common Occurrence

  What comes occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment but never in a thousand years?

  2. Cryptic Clothing

  Fifteen decades by a tree

  Cryptically expresses me

  — A garment worn in times of old,

  Five letters long, I keep out cold.

  3. NME

  Besides NME, which other three letters can be used to express “enemy”?

  4. T Word

  What begins with T, ends with T and has T in it?

  5. New Door

  How can you make one word from the letters above?

  6. A Charade by Sam Loyd

  As a whole, I am both safe and secure.

  Behead me, and I become a place of meeting.

  Behead me again, and I am the partner of ready.

  Restore me, and I become the domain of beasts.

  What am I?

  7. Next Letter

  What is the next letter in the series below, and why?

  B, C, D, E, G, P,?

  8. An Unusual Word

  I know a word of letters three. Add two more, and fewer there will be.

  9. An Unusual Sentence

  What is unusual about the sentence below?3

  A big cowboy, dancing elegantly for grand hotels in Jersey, knitting lovely mittens nicely on pretty quilted rubber shoes, thought untrained vets would X-ray yellow zebras

  10. Two Unusual Paragraphs

  “If youth, throughout all history, had had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn’t constantly run across folks today who claim that “a child don’t know anything.” A child’s brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult’s act, and figuring out its purport.”

  This is the first paragraph from Gadsby, a most unusual work of fiction. What is so unusual about it? It’s your job to find out. You should go through the paragraph slowly; word by word, and if you don’t spot anything first time around, go through it again. It looks ordinary, but it’s missing a particularly important symbol that’s normally crucial to writing. With a bit of luck, the solution will dawn on you — it’s probably not as difficult as you think. Good luck!

  Answers: Round 24

  1. The letter “m”

  2. Cloak (CL represents 150 in Roman Numerals)

  3. FOE

  4. Teapot

  5. By rearranging the letters to make “one word”.

  6. Stable

  7. “T”. They all rhyme.

  8. Few (it becomes “fewer” when you add “er”)

  9. The initial letters of each word run through the alphabet in order.

  10. The most common let
ter in the English language, the letter “e”, is entirely absent from both paragraphs. Gadsby is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright. The letter “e” does not occur a single time in its 250 pages.

  *Illustrations

  Round 25: Pure Logic 4

  1. Cannibal Logic

  You find yourself in an unpleasant situation. You are captive to a tribe of cannibals, who have decided that the time has come to eat you. It is their custom to allow captives to speak a few last words before they are eaten. The chieftain of the tribe eloquently explains, “If you make a true statement, we will roast you over the fire. If you make a false statement, we will boil you in a pot”.