John gave half of the apples he had plus one more to Jacob. He gave half of the remaining ones plus one more to James. Now, John was left with just one apple.
Can you find out how many did he have in the beginning?
You visit a home for specially-abled children on the occasion of Christmas where you meet with 50 children. You have a box of chocolates containing 50 chocolates exactly.
What if you were asked to one chocolate to each child in a manner that one chocolate still remains in the box? Is it possible?
A California farmer owns a beautiful pear tree. He supplies the fruit to a nearby grocery store. The store owner calls the farmer to see how much fruit is available for him to buy. The farmer knows the main trunk has 24 branches. Each branch has exactly 12 boughs and each bough has exactly 6 twigs. Since each twig bears one piece of fruit, how many plums will the farmer be able to deliver?
A man started to town with a fox, a goose, and a sack of corn. He came to a stream which he had to cross in a tiny boat. He could only take one across at a time. He could not leave the fox alone with the goose or the goose alone with the corn. How did he get them all safely over the stream?
A boy was locked in a room by some robbers. All that is in the room is a piano, a calendar, and a bed. The room is locked from the outside. What does he eat, drink, and how does he escape and get out?
It was a dark stormy night and a couple were in a car driving madly to a city. The car broke down and the husband had to go get help from someone who spoke his language. He was afraid to leave his wife alone in the car so he locked the car before leaving. When he came back, the car was in the same state as he had left it but his wife was dead, there was blood on the floor and there was a stranger in the car. What happened?
A new Engineering building containing 100 offices had just been completed. John was hired to paint the numbers 1 to 100 on the doors. How many times will John have to paint the number nine (9)?
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.
