Best difficult riddles

logicstorycleansimple

A wise man lived on a hill above a small town. The townspeople often approached him to solve their difficult problems and riddles. One day, two lads decided to fool him. They took a dove and set off up the hill. Standing before him, one of the lads said "Tell me, wise man, is the dove I hold behind my back dead or alive?" The man smiled and said "I cannot answer your question correctly". Even though the wise man knew the condition of the dove, why wouldn't he state whether it was dead or alive?
The man told the two lads, "If I say the dove is alive, you will the bird and show me that it is dead. If I say that it is dead, you will release the dove and it will fly away. So you see I cannot answer your question. Search: Schrödinger's cat
73.27 %
128 votes
logicclever

Justin Case and Auntie Bellum are fellow con artists who deliver coded messages to each other to communicate. Recently Auntie Bellum was put in jail for stealing a rare and expensive diamond. Only a few days after this, Justin Case sent her a friendly letter asking her how she was. On the inside of the envelope of the letter, he hid a code. Yesterday, Auntie Bellum escaped and left the envelope and the letter inside the jail cell. The police did some research and found the code on the inside of the envelope, but they haven't been able to crack it. Could you help the police find out what the message is? This is the code: llwatchawtfeclocklnisksundialcirbetimersool
The message was "loose bricks in left wall." The message was put backward with words related to time in between. This is how the message looks when separated: ll watch awtfe clock Inisk sundial cirbe timer sool If you take out watch, clock, sundial, and timer, this is what is left: llawtfelniskcirbesool Look at this backwards and this is what you have: loose bricks in left wall Auntie Bellum took out the bricks and escaped in the night. Then, she put the bricks back where they were.
73.25 %
76 votes
cleanlogicmathsimple

Create a number using only the digits 4,4,3,3,2,2,1 and 1. So I can only be eight digits. You have to make sure the ones are separated by one digit, the twos are separated by two digits the threes are separated with three digits and the fours are separated by four digits.
41312432.
73.23 %
115 votes
logiccleansimple

Six jugs are in a row. The first three are filled with coke, and the last three are empty. By moving only one glass, can you arrange them so that the full and the empty glasses alternate?
Move and then pour all coke from second glass to fifth glass.
73.22 %
67 votes
logicstorytricky

Frank and some of the boys were exchanging old war stories. James offered one about how his grandfather (Captain Smith) led a battalion against a German division during World War I. Through brilliant maneuvers he defeated them and captured valuable territory. Within a few months after the battle he was presented with a sword bearing the inscription: "To Captain Smith for Bravery, Daring and Leadership, World War One, from the Men of Battalion 8." Frank looked at James and said, "You really don't expect anyone to believe that yarn, do you?" What is wrong with the story?
It wasn't called World War One until much later. It was called the Great War at first, because they did not know during that war and immediately afterward that there would be a second World War (WW II).
73.20 %
102 votes
logiccleansimple

A boy goes and buys a fishing pole that is 6' 3" long. As he goes to get on the bus, the driver stops him. The driver tells him that he can't take anything longer than 6' onto the bus. The boy goes back into town, purchases one more thing, and the driver allows the boy on the bus. What did the boy buy, and what did he do with it?
The boy bought 6' long box. He put the fishing pole in diagonally and the entire package was only 6'!
73.12 %
80 votes
logicstoryclean

One day, Emperor Akbar posed a question to Birbal. He asked him what Birbal would choose if he offered either justice or a gold coin. "The gold coin," said Birbal without hesitation. On hearing this, Akbar was taken aback. "You would prefer a gold coin to justice?" he asked, not believing his own ears. "Yes," said Birbal. The other courtiers were amazed by Birbal's display of idiocy. They were full of glee that Birbal had finally managed himself to do what these courtiers had not been able to do for a long time - discredit Birbal in the emperor's eyes! "I would have been disappointed if this was the choice made even by my lowliest of servants," continued the emperor. "But coming from you it's not only disappointing, but shocking and sad. I did not know you were so debased!" How did Birbal justify his answer to the enraged and hurt Emperor?
"One asks for what one does not have, Your Majesty." said Birbal, smiling gently and in quiet tones. "Under Your Majesty´s rule, justice is available to everybody. But I am a spendthrift and always short of money and therefore I said I would choose the gold coin." The answer immensely pleased the emperor and respect for Birbal was once again restored in the emperor's eyes.
73.12 %
123 votes
logicclean

You have twelve balls, identical in every way except that one of them weighs slightly less or more than the balls. You have a balance scale, and are allowed to do 3 weighings to determine which ball has the different weight, and whether the ball weighs more or less than the other balls. What process would you use to weigh the balls in order to figure out which ball weighs a different amount, and whether it weighs more or less than the other balls?
Take eight balls, and put four on one side of the scale, and four on the other. If the scale is balanced, that means the odd ball out is in the other 4 balls. Let's call these 4 balls O1, O2, O3, and O4. Take O1, O2, and O3 and put them on one side of the scale, and take 3 balls from the 8 "normal" balls that you originally weighed, and put them on the other side of the scale. If the O1, O2, and O3 balls are heavier, that means the odd ball out is among these, and is heavier. Weigh O1 and O2 against each other. If one of them is heavier than the other, this is the odd ball out, and it is heavier. Otherwise, O3 is the odd ball out, and it is heavier. If the O1, O2, and O3 balls are lighter, that means the odd ball out is among these, and is lighter. Weigh O1 and O2 against each other. If one of them is lighter than the other, this is the odd ball out, and it is lighter. Otherwise, O3 is the odd ball out, and it is lighter. If these two sets of 3 balls weigh the same amount, then O4 is the odd ball out. Weight it against one of the "normal" balls from the first weighing. If O4 is heavier, then it is heavier, if it's lighter, then it's lighter. If the scale isn't balanced, then the odd ball out is among these 8 balls. Let's call the four balls on the side of the scale that was heavier H1, H2, H3, and H4 ("H" for "maybe heavier"). Let's call the four balls on the side of the scale that was lighter L1, L2, L3, and L4 ("L" for "maybe lighter"). Let's also call each ball from the 4 in the original weighing that we know aren't the odd balls out "Normal" balls. So now weigh [H1, H2, L1] against [H3, L2, Normal]. -If the [H1, H2, L1] side is heavier (and thus the [H3, L2, Normal] side is lighter), then this means that either H1 or H2 is the odd ball out and is heavier, or L2 is the odd ball out and is lighter. -So measure [H1, L2] against 2 of the "Normal" balls. -If [H1, L2] are heavier, then H1 is the odd ball out, and is heavier. -If [H1, L2] are lighter, then L2 is the odd ball out, and is lighter. -If the scale is balanced, then H2 is the odd ball out, and is heavier. -If the [H1, H2, L1] side is lighter (and thus the [H3, L2, Normal] side is heavier), then this means that either L1 is the odd ball out, and is lighter, or H3 is the odd ball out, and is heavier. -So measure L1 and H3 against two "normal" balls. -If the [L1, H3] side is lighter, then L1 is the odd ball out, and is lighter. -Otherwise, if the [L1, H3] side is heavier, then H3 is the odd ball out, and is heavier. If the [H1, H2, L1] side and the [H3, L2, Normal] side weigh the same, then we know that either H4 is the odd ball out, and is heavier, or one of L3 or L4 is the odd ball out, and is lighter. So weight [H4, L3] against two of the "Normal" balls. If the [H4, L3] side is heavier, then H4 is the odd ball out, and is heavier. If the [H4, L3] side is lighter, then L3 is the odd ball out, and is lighter. If the [H4, L3] side weighs the same as the [Normal, Normal] side, then L4 is the odd ball out, and is lighter.
73.10 %
93 votes