Brain Teasers
Riddle: A bank was robbed in a large city. The police officers went to visit the main suspect-Mr. Michaels-who had been detained several times before. Mr Michaels said, "I've been feeling unwell all this week, and I haven't left my apartment for three days! Luckily, I didn't need food; my fridge is completely full. You can check for yourself,". Indeed, the man opened his fridge to prove his words, but the officers still arrested him. Why?
Answer: If Mr. Michaels had already been staying inside for three days, his fridge wouldn't be so full…simply because we need to EAT in order to survive. It's not likely that Mr. Michaels would be doing too well after not eating for three days.
Riddle: Vanessa is a bilingual student; she speaks English and German. However, she hasn't been preparing for her exams. She decides to complete all of her exams in German. When most of her teachers see her exams, they don't understand what she's written and give her the tests back. However, one of Vanessa's teachers figured out what she was doing and gave her an F-. Which teacher was that?
Answer: It was Vanessa's math teacher who failed her. Math is mostly numbers, so the girl's math teacher could understand everything and check the exam.
Riddle: Ryan goes to an art gallery and sees four paintings: a raccoon, a llama, a football, and a balloon. He realizes that one of the paintings is different from the rest. Which one is it, and why?
Answer: The llama picture is different from the others because "llama" has just one double letter, while "raccoon", "football", and "balloon" all have two double letters.
Riddle: Even the Romans can solve this equation, 5 - 3 = 5 How is this possible?
Answer: Take away the F, I and E from the letter FIVE and that leaves with V which is 5 in roman numerals.
Riddle: I have seven yellow pencils, seven red pencils, and seven blue pencils. I have to divide them into two groups; the first group has to have three fewer yellow pencils than the second group, the second group should have one more red pencil than the first group, and the first group should have five more blue pencils than the second group. How many blue pens would be in each pile?
Answer: Zero. I have seven blue PENCILS, not PENS.
Riddle: Your spaceship lands on a foreign planet. A stranger in his workout clothes greets you to the entrance of the base. You go inside the base and wait for it to depressurize before removing your space suit. But before you get a chance to remove it, you get a message that someone at the base is an impostor. Who could it be–a man who covers his face because he has a sunburn, a woman with flaky patches all over her skin, or the stranger you saw earlier?
Answer: The stranger you saw earlier is an impostor because a human who is not wearing a spacesuit cannot survive outside of the base in the foreign planet's atmosphere, but this stranger somehow survived without his spacesuit.
Riddle: Anna was watching TV in her house when she heard someone knocking on her door. When the woman opened the door, she saw a suspicious-looking man who claimed to be her neighbor. The man became nervous and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was my house. I must have confused the houses,". Anna didn't believe it was just a mistake, and she called the police, saying that this man was a robber. How did Anna know?
Answer: If the man really thought that it was his house, he wouldn't have knocked on the door; he would've tried to open it with his keys. Knocking on the door is a technique used by criminals who want to break in and steal stuff.
Riddle: A mad chef forces you to cook breakfast for him; if he likes it, he'll set you free, but if not, you'll stay with him forever. While you're at the stove cooking something up, the chef dumps an entire container of salt into the pot you're cooking with. But when you serve breakfast, the chef realizes he'll have to let you go. What did you cook for him?
Answer: You cooked some boiled eggs. No matter how much salt is added to the pot, the boiled eggs won't be salty.
Riddle: What do you call one who sees as well during the day, as he does during the light?
Answer: Totally and completely blind person.
Riddle: Jim and Joey were on vacation and driving along a deserted country road from the town of Kaysville to the town of Lynnville. They came to multiple forks in the road. The signpost had been knocked down and they were faced with choosing one of five different directions. Since they had left their map at the last gas station and there was no one around to ask, how could Jim and Joey find their way to Lynnville?
Answer: They need to stand the signpost up so that the arm reading Kaysville points in the direction of Kaysville, the town they had just come from. With one arm pointing the correct way, the other arms will also point in the right direction.
Riddle: I’m a day when truth takes a twist, and laughter is hard to resist. What am I?
Answer: April Fools' Day This directly references April Fools' Day, a time when people twist the truth with pranks to spark laughter.
Riddle: It's 7:00 am. You are asleep and there is a sudden knock on the door. Behind the door are your parents, who came to have breakfast. In your fridge: bread, milk (pasteurized!), juice, and a jar of jam. What do you open first?
Answer: Your eyes.
Riddle: Two male members of the aristocracy are positioned to engage in battle against one another. Their wives, undaunted and loyal, stand beside their husbands, despite the dangers of the impending conflict. The strength of each of the opposing forces is equal, but small, with a mere 14 fighting men for each force, aside from the husbands and their wives. The combat is about to commence, so I ask you ------- Which army will make the first move?
Answer: The White Army. White always is required to make the first move ----- in a game of chess.
Riddle: Jane owns and works at a small business. She has many busy days, but she often finds herself with far too much time on her hands. She sometimes grows tired of all the same worn faces that come through her door, and she often has to hold the hands of many of those which have come to her place of business. Jane doesn't get outside much; however, she often encounters ticks while working, but she has never been bitten by one. While working on her job, Jane often thinks about her grandmother and grandfather, both of which reside with Jane in her home. What is Jane's occupation, and what type of small business does she own?
Answer: Jane is a clock repairer who owns her own clock-repair shop. By the way, Jane has two beautiful grandmother and grandfather clocks in her home which keep excellent time, thanks to Jane.
Riddle: In the 1950s, two young men, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers, stood on a round piece of wood preparing to do battle. Neither man carried any weapons of any kind, as they were both planning to use their feet to defeat their opponent. Sharp spikes on the bottoms of their boots turned their feet into the tools they would use to dispatch their adversary. One kick to the body or head could cause irreparable damage; but neither man ever struck the other with their spiked boots. In fact, not one physical blow was landed during the contest, and yet, one man was eliminated and sent to a watery grave. I thought these types of barbaric spectacles designed to satisfy the visual lusts of onlooking crowds had stopped after the gladiatorial days of ancient Rome. On the other hand, perhaps this scenario is not as violent as it appears to be. Exactly what was going on here?
Answer: The two combatants were engaged in a log rolling contest during a lumberjack competition. The spiked boots aided them in keeping their footing on the slippery logs.
Riddle: A young girl is standing on a small hill facing a man and two young boys. The man and one of the two boys are wearing headgear made of leather and metal, and the other young boy is wearing a hard, plastic hat. The man has no special feelings toward the girl on the hill, but the young boy in the special headgear is her close friend. However, the other boy in the plastic hat is the sworn enemy of the girl. As the man and the two boys stare intently at the girl on the hill, she suddenly throws a hard, round object toward the group of three males, striking the boy wearing the plastic hat in the head, knocking his hat off, and sending him sprawling to the ground. The man, after witnessing these events, issues a three-word command to the boy who was struck, and this causes the boy to run away from home. What was the three-word command the man gave to the boy, and why did it cause the boy to run away from home?
Answer: The young girl was the pitcher in a little league game. Her close friend (the young male catcher) called for a fastball, but the girl’s pitch was wild, and it knocked down the young boy who was wearing a protective batting helmet. The adult male umpire subsequently told the batter the appropriate three words, “Take Your Base.” The batter then ran away from home and went to first base.
Riddle: A woman, who is the executive director of a large and profitable business, has an interesting job description. Among her many duties, she is primarily responsible for the gathering and dispensing of pictures of dead people. In fact, she has a special room within her facility which is specifically designed to hold many thousands of these pictures, and she is assigned the task of securing this room against any and all unscrupulous scoundrels who might try to steal them. Her gang of laborers spend most of the week exchanging these pictures with those who frequent her establishment, sometimes collecting, and sometimes giving these pictures to others at their request. This woman and her employees appear to enjoy their work, as they all carry these pictures of deceased individuals in their purses and wallets outside of work. Is this woman and her gang of laborers morbidly deranged, or are they more normal than they initially appear to be? Just what is this business in which these people are engaged?
Answer: The woman is a bank president, and her gang of laborers are the tellers who work there. The pictures of dead people are the many thousands of bills and coins, each with a picture of a former President or a high ranking official who are now deceased, from our past government.
Riddle: There was no mention of it in any of the newspapers, but a queen recently moved to a small farm in the state of Iowa. To assist her, a group of about 20 diligent workers was assigned to help the queen with the farm work which needed to be done, as the queen was not accustomed to performing any type of menial, manual labor. It may seem a bit strange, but in her new home, there were no cows or chickens or farm animals of any kind, and the surrounding soil was very sandy, so no crops could be grown there. This really didn’t matter though, as there was no farm machinery for the workers to use anyway. At the queen’s insistence, those diligent workers spend their days digging tunnels all over the farm; but they are not seeking treasure or anything of value. These tunnels sometimes collapse on the workers, killing a few; but the queen shows little concern and these deaths are never reported to the police or to any law enforcement agency. Who does this queen think she is? She must feel she is above the law and has no respect for the lives of those who serve her! Where is the justice for these workers? Or, perhaps, the queen shouldn’t be held responsible after all. What exactly is going on here?
Answer: The queen was an ant which was purchased and added to an ant farm owned by a child in the state of Iowa. About 20 worker ants were added to the ant farm shortly thereafter.
Riddle: Terry had just returned to Chicago via. American Airlines at 12 midnight. He was extremely tired after having just completed a seven-day bridge tournament in California. After retrieving his single piece of luggage, he immediately hailed a taxi to take him to the nearest Red Roof Inn ------ Terry's favorite hotel. As he instructed the cabbie concerning his desired destination, he could plainly see the Spanish-speaking driver had no idea what was being said to him. Luckily, Terry remembered some of his high school Spanish, so he simply told the driver, "Tejado Rojo," which means "Red Roof" in Spanish. The cabbie immediately nodded to show his understanding, and he began driving to the requested destination. Upon arrival, Terry, who was barely awake by this time, paid the driver and entered the front door of the establishment. When he asked the receptionist for a room, the response he received was, "Are you on drugs? There is no place to sleep here!" Where do you suppose the cab driver had taken Terry?
Answer: The closest Pizza Hut. Almost, if not all of them have red roofs.
Riddle: A man is standing inside a large, brown circle. Just behind him is a smaller, white rectangle. In full view of many men, women, and even children, the man in the circle openly displays in his hand a small bag full of a white, powdery substance. Immediately, the man spots another man wearing a mask, signaling to him that he wants something the man in the circle has in his possession. The man in the brown circle, who is now standing on only one leg, proceeds to deliver a very small amount of the white powder to the masked man along with a round object. Numerous plainclothes police witness this open exchange, but neither man is arrested for the possession or the trafficking of the white powder. What is wrong with our society today!?! Ignoring crime is never the answer, as it only emboldens the criminals around us; or is the scenario described above more innocent than it appears? Just what is happening here?
Answer: The man in the brown circle is a baseball pitcher who is holding a white rosin bag used to help dry his hand before pitching. The pitcher then sees his catcher (the masked man) giving him the signal for which pitch he is to throw, and the pitcher then delivers the baseball which has a small amount of resin still on it.