What brings you down but never up?

If I put in one bird per cage, I have one bird too many. If I put in two bird per cage, I have one cage too many. How many cages and birds do I have?

Irene killed hundreds of people mercilessly and yet the police were not able to put her behind the bars. Why?

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 ?

Can you replace the X (both small and big x) with the numbers between 1 to 19 such that all the rows of 3 numbers between X (big x) sum to 23?

Can you discover the missing number in this series?

37, 10, 82
29, 11, 47
96, 15, 87
42, ?, 15

John is on an island and there are three crates of fruit that have washed up in front of him. One crate contains only apples. One crate contains only oranges. The other crate contains both apples and oranges.

Each crate is labelled. One reads 'apples', one reads 'oranges', and one reads 'apples and oranges'. He know that NONE of the crates have been labeled correctly - they are all wrong.

If he can only take out and look at just one of the pieces of fruit from just one of the crates, how can he label all of the crates correctly?

A convention is held where all the big logicians are summoned. The master places a band on everyone's forehead. Now all of them can see others bands but can't see his own. Then they are told that there are different colours of bands. All the logicians sit in circle and they are further explained that a bell will ring at regular intervals. The moment when a logician knew the colour of band on his forehead, he will leave at the next bell. If anyone leaves at the wrong bell, he will be disqualified.

The master assures the logicians that the puzzle will not be impossible for anyone of them. How will the logicians manage ?

An infinite number of mathematicians are standing behind a bar. The first asks the barman for half a pint of beer, the second for a quarter pint, the third an eighth, and so on. How many pints of beer will the barman need to fulfill all mathematicians' wishes?

I am taken from a mine and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost every person. What am I?