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Thinking Puzzles

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PUZZLE 1

• There is blood on the ceiling of my

bedroom. There has been no murder or

killing of any person. Nobody has played any trick on

me.Can you suggest a

logical explanation?

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Clue To Puzzle 1

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Answer To Puzzle 1

• A mosquito bit me. It later landed on my bedroom ceiling.

I climbed on the bed and I swatted it on my ceiling. (So

the blood is my own as well as the mosquito's).

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PUZZLE 2

• There is a flash of light and a man dies.

The man is not killed by any other person and he

does not die of any illness like a heart attack

etc. It’s not a case of suicide either.

Can you suggest a logical explanation?

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Clue To Puzzle 2

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Answer To Puzzle 2

• The man is a lion-tamer, posing for a photo with his lion. The

lion reacts badly to the flash of the camera, and the man can't

see properly, so he gets mauled.

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Puzzle 3

• An ordinary American citizen, with no passport, visits over thirty foreign countries in one day. He is welcomed in each country, and leaves each one of his own accord.

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Clue To Puzzle 3

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Answer To Puzzle 3

• He is a mail courier who delivers packages to the

different foreign embassies in the United States. The land of

an embassy belongs to the country of the embassy, not to

the United States.

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Puzzle 4

• A riverboat filled with passengers suddenly capsized, drowning

most of those aboard. The riverboat was in good condition and

there was no carelessness on the part

of the crew members.

Explain

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Clue To Puzzle 4

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Answer To Puzzle 4

• The boat was moving along a river in India when a large snake dropped onto the deck. The

passengers all rushed to the other side of the boat, thereby

overturning it. This is apparently based on a true incident reported

in the World Almanac.

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Puzzle 5

• Two people are dead in a car, which is locked from the

inside. There's a lot of blood. There has been no foul play

like a crime or suicide.

Can you explain?

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Clue To Puzzle 5

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Answer To Puzzle 5

• One of the dead people is a woman; the other is the baby she's just given birth to. She died in childbirth.

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Puzzle 6

• A woman throws something out a window and dies. She is healthy and

not mentally ill. She is not killed by any

person. It is also not a suicide.

Give a logical explanation.

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Clue To Puzzle 6

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Answer To Puzzle 6

• The object she throws is a boomerang. It flies out, loops around, and comes back and hits her in the head, killing her. Boomerangs do not often return so close to the point from which they were thrown, but I believe it's possible for this to happen.

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Puzzle 7

A man is born

in 1972 and dies in 1952 at the age

of 25. How is this possible?

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Clue To Puzzle 7

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Answer To Puzzle 7

• He's born in room number 1972 of a hospital and dies in room number 1952. The numbers can of course vary; it was originally set up with those numbers reversed (born in

1952, died in 1972), but I like it better this way.

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Puzzle 8

• A black man dressed all in black, wearing a

black mask, stands at a crossroads in a totally black-painted town. All

of the streetlights in town are broken. There

is no moon. A black-painted car without headlights drives

straight toward him, but turns in time and

doesn't hit him. How do you explain this?

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Clue To Puzzle 8

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Answer To Puzzle 8

It's daytime; the sun is out

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Puzzle 9• A man rides

into town on Friday. He stays one night and leaves on

Friday. How is this possible?

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Clue To Puzzle 9

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Answer To Puzzle 9

• Friday is a horse

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Puzzle 10

• An ordinary woman

walks on water. It is

not a miracle.

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Clue To Puzzle 10

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Answer To Puzzle 10

• It's easy to walk on a lake's surface when the

lake is frozen.

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# 1

A man locked his son out of the house. The son thanked him.

Explain.

Clue

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# 1 Answer

The son, in his late teens, was spoiled and idle. The father correctly inferred that evicting him and forcing him to earn his own way would benefit him, however unpleasant it would be at first. When the son found a job and had worked at it for a while, he understood how his father’s action had made his life more respectable and constructive. Therefore, he thanked his father.

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# 2

Zeke and his wife lived in a rural area. One evening, his wife felt ill. Zeke called the local doctor. “Doc, I think my wife may have appendicitis,” he explained. “Nonsense! I took out her appendix myself five years ago,” said the doctor. But Zeke’s wife proved to have appendicitis. Explain.

Clue :

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# 2 Answer:

Since the earlier surgery, Zeke had remarried.

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# 3

Adam had none. Eve had two. Everyone

nowadays has three. What are they?

Clue :

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# 3 Answer : The letter e.

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# 4

A bank robber grabbed several thousand dollars from a bank counter and,

although he was armed, he was captured within a few seconds before he could

leave the bank. How?

Clue :

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# 4 Answer:

The bank robber dashed to the revolving door and tried to push at the direction in which it would not revolve.

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# 5A woman places her hand on

her husband’s knee for an hour and then takes it off for ten minutes; then she places her hand on her husband’s

knee for another hour. Why?

Clues :

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# 5 Answer : The wife of the deaf Thomas Edison used to go with him to the theater. She drummed out his knee in Morse code with her fingers what the actors were saying on stage.

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# 6The ancient Greek

playwright Aeschylus was killed by a tortoise. How?

Clues :

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# 6 Answer

Aeschylus was killed when the tortoise was dropped on him from a height by an eagle who may have mistaken the bald head of Aeschylus for a rock on

which to break the tortoise.

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# 7After a World Cup soccer match, two players swapped jerseys. The police immediately arrested them. Why?

Clue:

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# 7 Answer

It was the women’s World Cup and the match was played in a country with strict rules about female nudity or undressing in public.

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# 8 A high-speed police car chases a much slower vehicle in which criminals are escaping. But the police fail to catch them. Why?

Clue

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# 8 Answer :

The getaway vehicle was a double-decker bus that went under a low bridge. The top deck of the bus was cut off and fell onto the pursuing police car.

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# 9

A man had his throat attacked by a woman with an electric shaving razor, yet he suffered no serious injurious. How come?

Clue

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# 9 Answer:

The woman forgot to plug in the electric shaver.

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# 10

William was the least intelligent and

laziest boy in a class of 30 students

who took an examination. Yet when the results were announced, William’s name was at the top of

the list. How come?Clue

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$ 10 Answer: William’s name was William Abbot and the results were given in alphabetical

order.

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