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?
An apple seller is hosting a competition. He offers 1000 apples and 10 boxes to the people who pass by. The challenge is to put those 1000 apples in the 10 boxes in such a manner that if he asks for any amount of apples, the person can directly give him the boxes or a combination of boxes. If the person can do it, he promises to give a thousand apples for free.
If you happen to pass by the apple seller, will you be able to win a thousand apples?
I went to the bookshop and spent one-half of the money that was in my purse.
When I came out, I found that I had as many cents as I had dollars and half as many dollars as I had cents when I went in. Find the money in my purse when I entered the store.
A thief is convicted in Mexico. He gets the death penalty. The judge allows him to say the last sentence to determine how the penalty will be carried out. If the thief lies, he will be hanged, if he speaks the truth he will be beheaded. The thief tells the last sentence and to everybody's surprise some minutes later he is set free because the judge cannot determine his penalty. What did the thief say?
The owner of a popular clothing store comes up with his own method of pricing items. A vest costs $8, socks cost $10, a tie costs $6, and a blouse costs $12. Using the owner’s method, how much would a pair of underwear cost?
You have a 12 liters jug full of water. You have two empty 8 liters and 5 liters jug. How can you divide the water into two equal parts using these jugs?
You have 10 balls with you. A friend of yours out of nowhere asks you to place those ten balls in five lines such that each of the lines has exactly 4 balls on them. He needs to check your intelligence. Prove him by doing the task.
The day before the 1996 U.S. presidential election, the NYT Crossword contained the clue “Lead story in tomorrow’s newspaper,” the puzzle was built so that both electoral outcomes were correct answers, requiring 7 other clues to have dual responses.