What has to be broken before you can use it?

You have two strings whose only known property is that when you light one end of either string it takes exactly one hour to burn. The rate at which the strings will burn is completely random and each string is different. How do you measure 45 minutes?

In a rainy season, one day 3 huge ladies walked under a normal-sized umbrella.
The umbrella is not huge enough to accommodate all 3 ladies yet not a single lady got wet. Why?

A large container is kept in open under the rain. Every passing hour, the water collected inside the container becomes double what it was.

In ten hours, the container is filled completely. Can you calculate how long would it have taken to be filled in half?

One fine day, an intellectual man came to the emperor's court with the aim of testing Birbal's wittiness. In order to do this, he challenged Birbal to answer his question and hence prove that he was as intelligent and witty as he was said to be.
He asked Birbal, Do you want me to ask one difficult question or a hundred easy ones?
Since both Akbar and Birbal had had a tough day and were eager to leave, Birbal hastily told the intellectual to ask him a single difficult question.
Intellectual: OK. Tell me what came first into the world, the egg or the chicken?
Of course, the chicken, Birbal replied with a smile.
This time with a note of victory in his voice, the intellectual asked Birbal, How will you demonstrate that?
What did Birbal say?

There are three boxes. One is labeled "APPLES" another is labeled "ORANGES". The last one is labeled "APPLES AND ORANGES". You know that each is labeled incorrectly. You may ask me to pick one fruit from one box which you choose.

How can you label the boxes correctly?

You measure my life in hours
I serve you by expiring
I vanish faster when I am thin
and slower when I am thick
The wind is my energy
What am I?

What does this Rebus Picture means ?

A generous owner of a company decided to give a bonus of $45 to every man and $60 to every woman on his birthday. But only one-ninth of the men and one-twelfth of the women were present to take the bonus.

Can you calculate the amount of money the owner spent if there were 3552 employees?

Can you identify the hidden rebus in the image below?