There are two words one resembles the "state of rest" and the other is related to "writing/reading material".

Can you name these two words which also sound similar?

There are two beautiful yet remote islands in the South Pacific. The Islanders born on one island always tell the truth, and the Islanders from the other island always lie.
You are on one of the islands and meet three Islanders. You ask the first which island they are from in the most appropriate Polynesian tongue, and he indicates that the other two Islanders are from the same island. You ask the second Islander the same question, and he also indicates that the other two Islanders are from the same island.
Can you guess what the third Islander will answer to the same question?

The dirtier I get, the whiter I look. Who am I?

There are three boxes of different sizes with three cupcakes inside each of the boxes in Christina's kitchen. At night her daughter wakes up and goes to the kitchen. She opens a box and eats all three cakes.

But in the morning Christina finds out that each box still had three cupcakes. How?

John went to a parrot shop in Mexico, and the parrot owner told him that his parrot is so unique that he repeats everything he hears. John got excited and immediately bought the parrot. John went home and spoke many words, but the parrot does not repeat anything.
He went again to the parrot shop and complaint to the shopkeeper, but the shopkeeper never lied. Explain?

If a boy blows 18 bubbles,
Then pops 6 eats 7 and then
He pops 5 and blows 1.
How many are left?

How will you measure 15 minutes using two hourglasses of 7 minutes and 11 minutes respectively?

I’m tall when I’m young, and I’m short when I’m old. What am I?

What number comes next in this sequence:
7 8 5 5 3 4 4 _

You are confined in a room and given two metal rods. Out of these two rods, one is magnet and the other is the iron rod. They look starkly similar. You don't have any other metal object in the room.

How will you decide which one of those is magnet?