life or death

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles, and 2 empty bowls. He then says, 'Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is WHITE you will live, but if the marble is BLACK... you will die.'

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a WHITE marble?




Similar Riddles

A wife and her husband were driving in their car on the highway. All of a sudden, they ran out of gas. So the husband said to the wife, 'Now, you stay here. I will go down the highway to the nearest gas station, and it will be about 1 hour. Just listen to the radio and read some books, and remember to lock all the windows and doors. I will leave the keys with you.' So, off the husband went, and the wife first locked ALL the windows and doors. Next, she turned on the radio, and this is what she heard on the news report:
'THERE IS A MURDERER ON THE LOOSE. HE WAS LAST SEEN ON THE HIGHWAY, WEARING ALL BLACK, ABOUT 5 FOOT 11 INCHES. PLEASE, BE AWARE AND CONTACT THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY.' The wife got very scared. She turned off the radio and double-checked the locked doors. Then she saw the murderer, only a couple of feet away from the car. An hour later, the husband returned to his car. Inside the car, his wife was DEAD, she had been murdered. All the windows were still locked, and the doors. No windows were broken, and the car was in PERFECT condition. No scratches or anything, it was the same way as when he left it. How did the murderer kill the wife?

Asked by Neha on 13 Jul 2023


A few friends are enjoying their sea voyage in a boat full of apples. On the way, they felt hungry and thus decided to eat the apples. Together, they ate two dozen of apples. When they have eaten the apples, will there be any change in the water level?

Asked by Neha on 06 May 2021

You need to complete the maze by entering from the entrance marked below in the figure near the yellow circle, bottom left and leaving from the exit point near the green circle, bottom middle.

Rule of Game: You can move only by exchanging green and yellow circles.

Cross the Gate

Asked by Neha on 21 Oct 2023


Assume there are approximately 5,000,000,000 (5 billion) people on Earth. What would you estimate to be the result, if you multiply together the number of fingers on every person's left hand? (For the purposes of this exercise, thumbs count as fingers, for five fingers per hand.) If you cannot estimate the number then try to guess how long the number would be.

Asked by Neha on 24 Sep 2025

A Japanese ship was en route to a mission on foreign seas. The captain of the ship felt tired and thought of taking a bath. He went for taking the shower and removed his diamond ring and Rolex and kept them on the table. When he returned after taking the bath, he found that the ring and watch were stolen.

He called the five members of the crew whom he suspected and asked them what they were doing for the last 15 minutes.

The Italian cook (with a butcher knife in hand): I was in the fridge room getting meat for cooking.

The British Engineer (with a high beam torch in hand): I was working on a generator engine.

The Pakistani seaman: I was on the mast correcting the flag which was upside down by mistake.

The Indian Radio officer: I was trying to make a contact with the company to inform them about our position.

The American navigation officer: I am on night watch, so I was sleeping in my cabin.

Upon listening to them, the captain caught the lying member. Who do you think stole the valuables?

Asked by Neha on 10 Apr 2024

You are stuck on an island where you have nothing. You find four pieces of paper somewhere on the island. What will be your strategy to escape from the island safely?

PS: No other resource is available to you on the island, neither can you build anything.

Asked by Neha on 11 Oct 2025


When I got four, I have it none.
When I got two, I have it some.
When I got none, I have it all.

What is it?

Asked by Neha on 31 Aug 2024

What is the unique property of the following words ?
* Revive
* Banana
* Grammar
* Voodoo
* Assess
* Potato
* Dresser
* Uneven

Asked by Neha on 20 Aug 2021

A chess tournament is taking place on knock-out terms (the one who loses the match is out of the game).
(a) If 10 matches are played in total, how many players participated?
(b) If 20 players took part in the tournament, how many matches were played?

Asked by Neha on 10 Feb 2025


I have an eye but still cannot see.

Who am I?

Asked by Neha on 28 Oct 2023

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Amazing Facts

Challenging

There is a cryptic organization called Cicada 3301 that posts challenging puzzles online, possibly to recruit codebreakers and linguists.