Riddle Me This

James Orvis Wilson

Dedicate the book to my wife Barbra Savelli Wilson

You're required to straighten out the labels on three boxes that were labeled incorrectly.

One box is labeled apples.

The second is labeled oranges.

The third is labeled mixed or apples and oranges.

You're allowed to reach into only one box and without looking, feeling around, smelling, etc., select only one piece of fruit.

From this one selection, you should be able to correct all the mislabeled boxes.

How can this be done? Explain:

A/O

A man is driving his son to school one morning and is involved in an accident. The boy's father is killed immediately, but he is transported to the hospital for treatment. The emergency room doctor looked the boy over and declared that he required surgery but said, "I can't perform the surgery for he is my son."

Who is the doctor?

A man walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a glass of water. The bartender gives him the water. The man drinks the water and requests another glass. The bartender complies and gives him another glass. The man drinks the second glass of water and requests another. The bartender reaches under the bar, pulls out a large gun, and points it at the man. The man says, "Thanks," and walks out.

Can you explain this behavior?

A man is lying in the middle of a field with a pack on his back. He is dead.

What was the cause of death?

Two men are sitting at a bar drinking identical mixed drinks. One is drinking his slowly while the other drinks his real fast. The man who drinks slowly dies.

What was the cause of death?

A farmer left his farm to his four sons. He knew they always fought over the least little thing.

But after a little thought, he figured how he could divide the farm into four equal parts, each section of land has the same shape, size, and dimensions.

This is the farm. How did he do it?

500'

1,000'

500'

1,000'

The island is surrounded by a moat 10' across. You have two planks 10' long. How do you use the two planks to get to the island?

How cold is this?

I had three girlfriends. I bought a basket with three roses in it. I gave each girl a rose, but one rose was left in the basket.

How is this possible?

10.

Okay, this one's easy. You're driving this bus, and at the first stop, five people get on the bus. At the next stop, three people get on. At the next stop, four people get on, and one person gets off. At the next stop, five people get on. At the next stop, six people get on, and three people get off. At the next stop, two people get on, and four people get off.

Now were you paying attention? The question is not how many stops were made or how many people got on or off the bus but how old is the bus driver?

11.

Cannibals capture a man. He is offered a chance to be set free. He is allowed to make a statement. If the statement he makes is true, he is to be boiled in oil. If the statement he makes is false, he is to be hung by the neck.

The man thought for a moment and made a statement, thus becoming the first man to be set free.

What did the man say?

12.

You are walking down a path when you come to a fork in the path. Standing at the fork in the path are two men. One man always tells the truth while the other always lies. One direction leads to safety, the other leads to danger, and both men know the safe path. You do not know which man lies or which tells the truth, nor do you know the safe path.

You are allowed to ask only one question to one of the two men to determine the safe direction to travel.

What is the question?

13.

There is a cabin on the side of a mountain, and everyone in the cabin is dead. All victims had the same fate. What was the cause of death?

14.

An archaeologist claimed that he had found a gold coin dated 44 BC. Do you believe him? Why? Why not?

15.

How far can a rabbit run into the woods?

16.

A frog is trying to get out of a well. Each time he jumps, he travels three feet but slides back down two feet.

If the well is twenty-one feet deep, how many jumps will it take for the frog to get out?

17.

Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son.

Who is that man?

18.

A man gets up one morning and gets dressed for work. He goes down for the breakfast his wife has prepared for him. He has his meal, grabs his lunch on the way out the door, and kisses his wife goodbye. He gets in his car, turns on the radio and is driving to work when all of a sudden, he stops the car, turns around, and returns home. When he gets home, he goes in the house and shoots his wife.

Why?

19.

A man is in prison. One day, a fellow inmate attacks the man in the exercise yard. He is rushed to the dispensary. Once in the dispensary, he is questioned as to which inmate attacked him. In the room were the warden, doctor, nurse, and a guard. He was unable to speak but looked around the room for a clue. The inmate finally looked and pointed at the doctor and died. They knew it wasn't the doctor that attacked the man, but with this clue, they were able to determine the inmate that committed the murder.

Which inmate was it?

20.

You're sitting in a very special house. Each wall has a large picture window in it. Each window has a southern exposure. A large bear walks by one of the windows.

What color is the bear?

21.

I have in my hand two US minted coins. Their total value is fifty-five cents. One of the coins is not a nickel.

What are the two coins?

22.

A man lives in a twenty-one-story building. Each morning he gets up, rides the elevator to the ground floor, and goes to work. In the evenings, he returns from work and gets in the elevator. If someone is with him, he rides up to his floor, gets out, and goes to his apartment. However, when he is alone, he gets out on the eighteenth floor and walks up the stairs to his apartment. Why?

23.

A man was walking down the street with his brother when all of a sudden, he pulls out a gun and shoots a person in the crowd. A policeman, as well as several witnesses, sees the act. The man is tried and convicted of murder in the first degree. However, he is set free.

Why?

24.

You walk into a dark room and only have one match. There is a wood-burning stove, an oil lamp, and a candle. Which one would you light first?

25.

You enter your bedroom in the dark and do not wish to disturb your sleeping wife. You have in your sock drawer five pairs of white socks and five pairs of black socks. However, the socks are separated. What is the minimum number of socks that you would have to remove to be assured of getting a pair of white socks? What is the minimum number of socks that you would have to remove to be assured of getting a pair the same color?

26.

Three men rent a hotel room one night, and the clerk charges them twenty-one dollars for the room or seven dollars each. After the men leave for their room, the clerk discovers that he has overcharged the men. He calls the bellhop and gives him five dollars to return to the men. On the way to the men's room, the bellhop decides to make it easy, so he pockets two dollars and gives the men back three. That means each man paid six dollars each or eighteen dollars for the room, plus the two dollars the bellhop kept makes it twenty dollars. Where is the other dollar?

27.

A young man is away at college and finds himself short of money, so he sends the following telegram to his father.

The question is, how much money did he request?

28.

Some months have thirty days. Some months have thirty-one days. How many months have twenty-eight days?

29.

Do they have a Fourth of July in England?

30.

Why is it against the law for a man living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to be buried west of the Mississippi River?

31.

A man is on his way to market with a basket of eggs when he comes to a bridge. To cross the bridge, he is required to pay a toll. The toll is half the eggs in his basket plus one egg. The man pays the toll and proceeds, only to encounter another bridge with the same toll. The man pays the toll and proceeds, only to encounter a third bridge with the same toll. After paying the toll and crossing the third bridge, he then discovers that his basket is empty.

How many eggs did he start with?

32.

A plane takes off and flies due south for one hundred miles, then due east for one hundred miles, then due north for one hundred miles and lands where he took off.

There is only one place in the world where this is possible. Where is that?

33.

An airplane crashes on the border of the US and Canada. In which country do they bury the survivors?

34.

The police are called to a disturbance. Upon entering the apartment, they find a dead man and three other men, one of which committed the crime. The room only had a table, four chairs, and fifty-three bicycles. The police were able to determine the motivation for the crime at a glance. Why was the man killed?

35.

A woman returns form shopping and finds Henry lying in a puddle of water and a lot of broken glass around him. He is dead. The woman's dog is not acting strange, but she knows he committed the deed.

What was his cause of death?

36.

If eggs were twelve cents a dozen, how much would seventeen eggs cost?

37.

A man is hired to count $1,000,000. It takes him an average of three seconds per bill. If the man works an eight-hour day, five-day week, how long will it take him to count the money?

38.

There is a doctor in California who has a brother in Reno who is a lawyer, but the lawyer in Reno does not have a brother in California that is a doctor.

How is that possible?

39.

If you had a (3) three-gallon jug and a (5) five-gallon jug but you needed four (4) gallons of water, how would you do it?

40.

A man is found hanging by the neck. They know for a fact he committed suicide without any help but can't figure out how. The man is in the middle of a large hangar suspended ten feet from the roof and ten feet from the ground. The hangar is empty otherwise, with no sign of how he could have reached the rope.

How was this accomplished?

41.

There are two cars. We'll call them A and B. They are one hundred miles apart and traveling at the same rate of speed 60 mph. There is an insect on the bumper of car A, and at time 0, both vehicles and the insect take off together. The insect travels toward car B at a rate of 120 mph. Upon arrival at car B, the insect reverses direction (with no loss of speed or time) and returns to car A. This reversal of direction continues until the two cars meet. At that point, how far will the insect have traveled?

42.

There was a man on his way to St. Ives who met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven cats, and each cat had seven kittens. So how many souls were on their way to St. Ives?

43.

Using the numbers 0-9, place a number in each block but do not have two adjacent numbers touching.

44.

You're in a race, and you overtake the second-place runner. What place are you in?

45.

You're in the same race, and you just passed the last runner. What place are you in now?

46.

Johnny's mother has four sons. One is named North. One is named South. One is named East. What is the fourth one's name?

Answers

Since a statement of fact was made, "three boxes that were labeled incorrectly," you must start with the box marked A/O. The label is incorrect, so we know the container does not contain apples and oranges, so it must contain one are the other. From that selection, you know the contents are whatever you pluck from the container. For demonstration purposes, we'll say an orange. The container labeled apples and the container labeled oranges remain. The container labeled apples doesn't contain apples (because the label says it does, and the label is wrong) nor oranges since we chose an orange from the A/O container. Therefore, it has to contain apples and oranges. We know the container labeled oranges is wrong because we chose an orange from the container labeled A/O. Plus the label is incorrect, so we must conclude it contains apples.

The boy's mother.

The man has the hiccups.

His parachute failed to open.

Poison that was hidden in the ice.

Three degrees below 0.

I the last girl the basket.

How old are you? Since you're driving.

"I will be hung."

If they hang him, that's true, and they should have boiled him in oil. If they boil him in oil, that's false, and they should have hung him.

Address either man and ask, "Which way would he tell me to go for safety?" Then choose the other path. You ask the man who lies, and he will lie and direct you to the wrong path. If you ask the man who tells the truth, he will have to tell you the same thing as the man who lies, so you get the same answer, which is a lie.

The airplane crashed (aircraft cabin).

How could they have known forty-four years before Christ was to be born to start dating the coins?

Halfway the remainder of the time he's running out.

Eighteen.

Your son.

He was listening to a talk show on the radio, and the radio station called his home and a man answered.

They concluded the doctor was an MD, thus Roman numerals M and D equate to 1500, so inmate 1500, who was at the scene, must have committed the crime.

White, since you're obviously on the North Pole.

A fifty-cent piece and a nickel. One is not a nickel, but the other is.

The man is a midget and can only reach so high.

He is a Siamese twin.

The match.

Twelve. Three.

The hotel kept $15, the bellhop kept $2, and each man got $1 back for a total of $21.

All.

Yes, but it's not their Independence Day.

Because he is still alive.

Fourteen.

The North Pole.

They don't bury survivors.

Cheating at cards.

Affixation (gold fish).

Seventeen cents.

The lawyer in Reno has a sister that is a doctor.

You would fill the three-gallon jug and pour it into the five-gallon jug. You would fill the three-gallon jug again and pour that into the five-gallon jug, leaving one gallon in the three-gallon jug. You would then empty the five-gallon jug. You would then empty the one gallon from the three-gallon jug into the five-gallon jug, then fill the three-gallon jug and pour it into the five-gallon jug with the one gallon already there. That gives you your four gallons.

Dry ice.

Car A would meet car B at the halfway point, fifty miles. It would take car A fifty minutes to travel fifty miles. That means the insect traveled for fifty minutes at a rate of speed of 120 mph or one hundred miles.

One.

See below:

Second.

You can't have passed the last person if you were last, or another way to look at it is, you can't be after the last person, because that would make you last.

Johnny.

About the Author

James Orvis Wilson retired from the air force and civil service. He loved telling riddles. Civil service workers gave him a plaque for best storyteller riddles.

A complete book of riddles, can you figure them all out? Dive into this book of riddles. There is a little something for everyone.

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