While house hunting in London, I came across a very good leasehold property Discussing the lease the landlady told me:
'The property was originally on a 99 years lease and two-thirds of the time passed is equal to four-fifths of the time to come. Now work it out for yourself and see how many years are to go!
The king of Octopuses has servants who have six, seven or eight legs. The distinguishing characteristics of the servants is that the one with seven legs always lie but the one with either six or eight legs speak the truth always.
One day, four servants meet and converse:
The black one says, 'We have 28 legs altogether.'
The green one says, 'We have 27 legs altogether.'
The yellow one says, 'We have 26 legs altogether.'
The red one says, 'We have 25 legs altogether.'
Can you identify the colour of the servant who is speaking the truth?
These types of puzzles are known as charades. What you have to do is to find two words that are referred to in the first stanza and the second stanza and put them together to form the third word in the third stanza.
Just for example, if my first refers to 'off' and my second refers to 'ice', then my whole will be the 'office'.
My first is present - future's past -
A time in which your lot is cast.
My second is my first of space
Defining people's present place.
My whole describes a lack of site -
A place without length, breadth, or height.
I am dry when I go inside, but wet when I am pulled outside.
The longer I am inside, the stronger I get
When I am completely out, I am wet and I literally sag
Who am I?
Three men in a cafe order a meal the total cost of which is $15. They each contribute $5. The waiter takes the money to the chef who recognises the three as friends and asks the waiter to return $5 to the men.
The waiter is not only poor at mathematics but dishonest and instead of going to the trouble of splitting the $5 between the three he simply gives them $1 each and pockets the remaining $2 for himself.
Now, each of the men effectively paid $4, the total paid is therefore $12. Add the $2 in the waiters pocket and this comes to $14. Where has the other $1 gone from the original $15?