Tax Collection Custom

A research team went to a village somewhere between the jungles of Africa. Luckily for them, they reached the day when quite an interesting custom was to be performed. The custom was performed once a year as they confirmed and was performed in order to collect the taxes from every male of the region.

The taxes were to be paid in the form of grains. Everyone must pay pounds of grain equaling his respective age. This means a 20-year-old will have to pay 20 pounds of grain and a 30-year-old will pay 30 pounds of grain and so on.

The chief who collects the tax has 7 weights and a large 2-pan scale to weigh. But there is another custom that the chief can weigh only three of the seven weights.

Can you find out the weights of the seven weights? Also, what is the maximum age of the man that can be weighed for the payment of taxes?




Similar Riddles

Can you decipher the two rows to find the hidden word?


Make the Word

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2021


There is a bag which have 21 blue balls and 23 red balls. You also have 22 red balls outside the bag. Randomly remove two balls from the bag. * If they are of different colors, put the blue one back in the bag. * If they are the same colour, take them out and put a red ball back in the bag. Repeat this until only one ball remains in the bag. What is the color of the sole ball left in the bag ?

Asked by Neha on 13 Mar 2026

What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs during the day, and three legs in the evening?

Oedipus, the king of Thebes, figured out the answer to the riddle:

Asked by Neha on 13 Sep 2025


A pack of cards has 40 cards. You are blindfolded. Out of 40, 25 cards are facing down while 15 are facing up. You have been asked to divide this pack of cards into two decks - so that each deck contains an equal number of face-up cards. Remember, you are blindfolded.

How will you do it?

Asked by Neha on 10 Jan 2026

How many points are there on the globe where, by walking one mile south, then one mile east and then one mile north, you would reach the place where you started?

Asked by Neha on 21 Apr 2022

A woman is sitting in her hotel room and hears a knock at the door. She opens the door to see a man whom she’s never met before. He says, “I’m sorry, I have made a mistake, I thought this was my room.” He then goes down the corridor and into the elevator. The woman goes back into her room and calls security. What made the woman so suspicious of the man?

Asked by Neha on 22 May 2025


The ages of a father and son add up to 66.
The father's age is the son's age reversed.
How old could they be?
(3 possible solutions).

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2021

What will be the best approach to finding all the prime numbers less than 75 that leave an odd reminder when we divide them with 5?

Asked by Neha on 12 Jul 2021

Count the number of triangles in the picture below:

Counting You Should Know

Asked by Neha on 16 Jul 2024


What can you see in the middle of March and April that you can never see in any other month?

Asked by Neha on 13 Oct 2021

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Challenging

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