The great emperor Akbar once ruled India. He was well known for his intelligence. But along with that, he was known for the Nine Gems in his court. One of the nine gems was Birbal, a quick witted and extremely intelligent man. The stories of his wit were widely popular.
Once a king ruling in a distant land heard of Birbal. To check his wit, he sent an invitation and called him to visit his land. Akbar allowed Birbal to go and he took off on the journey.
Upon reaching that kings kingdom, he was welcomed with flowers. He was then escorted to the palace of the king. Upon entering the palace, Birbal found that there were six people sitting in front of him adorning the same robe. They were also lookalike and it was hard to judge who the real king was.
After a couple of minutes, Birbal approached one of them and bowed in front of him greeting him.
That was the real king. How did Birbal know who was the real king ?
I can sizzle like bacon,
I am made with an egg,
I have plenty of backbone, but lack a good leg,
I peel layers like onions, but still remain whole,
I can be long, like a flagpole, yet fit in a hole.
You walk into a room where there are three primates held in their respective cages:
1) A lion who is eating the flesh of a goat.
2) An orangutan who is playing with blocks.
3) A donkey who is sitting idle.
I inserted a coin in a bottle and closed its mouth with the help of a cork. Now, I was able to take the coin out from the bottle without taking out the cork or breaking the bottle. Can you tell me how I did it?
If I put in one canary per cage, I have one bird too many. If I put in two canaries per cage, I have one cage too many. How many cages and canaries do I have?
Four people need to cross a rickety bridge at night. Unfortunately, they have only one torch and the bridge is too dangerous to cross without one. The bridge is only strong enough to support two people at a time. Not all people take the same time to cross the bridge. Times for each person: 1 min, 2 mins, 7 mins and 10 mins. What is the shortest time needed for all four of them to cross the bridge?
A man always keeps a spare tyre in his car. To make full use of all the five tyres, he changes the tyres in a manner that for a distance of 1, 00,000 km, each of them runs the same distance.
Can you calculate the distance travelled by each tyre on that journey?
In 2007, a puzzle was released and $2 million prizes were offered for the first complete solution. The competition ended at noon on 31 December 2010, with no solution being found. Wiki