You are on your way to visit your Grandma, who lives at the end of the valley. It's her anniversary, and you want to give her the cakes you've made. Between your house and her house, you have to cross 5 bridges, and as it goes in the land of make believe, there is a troll under every bridge! Each troll, quite rightly, insists that you pay a troll toll. Before you can cross their bridge, you have to give them half of the cakes you are carrying, but as they are kind trolls, they each give you back a single cake.
How many cakes do you have to leave home with to make sure that you arrive at Grandma's with exactly 2 cakes?
2 Cakes
How?
At each bridge you are required to give half of your cakes, and you receive one back. Which leaves you with 2 cakes after every bridge.
There is a big Indian and a little Indian. The little Indian is the big Indians son but the big Indian is not the little Indians father. What is the big Indian?
You walk up to a mountain that has two paths. One leads to the other side of the mountain, and the other will get you lost forever. Two twins know the path that leads to the other side. You can ask them only one question. Except! One lies and one tells the truth, and you don't know which is which. So, What do you ask?
You ask each twin "What would your brother say?"
This works because.... Well let's say the correct path is on the left side. So say you asked the liar "What would your brother say?" Well, the liar would know his brother was honest and he would say the left side, but since the liar lies, he would say right. If you asked the honest twin the same question, he would say right, because he knows his brother will lie. Therefore, you would know that the correct path was the left.