Two guards were on duty outside a barracks. One faced up the road to watch for anyone approaching from the North. The other looked down the road to see if anyone approached from the South. Suddenly one of them said to the other, "Why are you smiling?"

How did he know his companion was smiling?

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

As shown in the picture below, we can see a boy hanging on the tree branch to save his life. There are various ways in which he can die like1. A snake hanging toward the right waiting to bite the boy.2. A roaring Lion near the tree.3. Two crocodiles are ready to attack if the boy reaches near water. The tree is chopped to some extent, so can fall as if he moves a lot. Can you give this boy an escape plan?

You are playing as white and given four rooks to checkmate the black king in four moves with the following rules 1. You can place one rook every move and ensure the black king should be in check position.2. After four moves the black king should be in the checkmate position.

One day, I thought of ways that can be used for creating a palindrome. So I decided that I will turn into a larger number by adding the reversed digits to the original number and keep doing it till I finally obtained a palindrome.

I am not sure if this process will always result in a palindrome eventually but I was able to produce a four-digit palindrome. Can you guess my starting number?

How many letters are in the alphabet?

For an extra income, John decided to work at a Hotel for one hour daily. The manager offers him that they will pay him $11 after every 11 days.
However, John offered a different proposition to the manager. The offers stand as:
He will be paid just a penny on his first day.
Two pence will be paid on the second day,
Four pence will be paid on the third day.
And so on till the 11th day.

Should the Hotel manager accept his offer?

A river should be crossed by a father, a mother and their two sons and two daughters.
There are some rules that should be followed while crossing the river. There can be only two people in the raft while crossing. The daughters cannot be with their father unless there is the presence of the mother. The sons cannot be with their mothers unless the father is present. Unless the guard is on the board, the criminals cannot be with any of the family members. Only the adults like the father, the guard, and the mother knows to use the raft.

How will they cross the river?

Use only one mathematical symbol and all numbers (0-9) to get a sum of 99

John was driving a bus and got stuck when passing through an underpass. Then came Jacob with a needle and got the bus out of the underpass.

What did the boy do?