Lateral Thinking Puzzles

[Ally Graham]

Every day I am going to try and post a lateral thinking puzzle for you people to work out.

[Bob Todd]

Hooray! I love these!

[Ally Graham]

1) The Man in the Bar
A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out. Why?

[Sausehuhn]

because "I want a glass of water" is the code name for pointing guns at the barkeeper's guests and the man's hobby is try to make other people pointing at him? :dizzy

[Rapier Racer]

Because he doesn't want to get shot :guns

[Bob Todd]

I know the answer, so I won't spoil it for others. You can PM me if you really want to know.

[Shem]

Because a man in a bar asking for a glass of water instead of alcohol is as suspicious as a potencial robber ?

[Bob Todd]

Tee hee.

[mid]

1) The Man in the Bar
A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out. Why?

No, I said I wanted A shot, not to BE shot!

[Thruster2097]

...because it was a local bar for local people. This strange and possibly sweaty out-of-towner asked for water because he wanted to quench his thirst after a long session of hiking, rambling or possibly orienteering. In a true "league of gentlemen" fashion, the local barkeep elevated and cocked his 12 bore.
The friendly, strange and possibly sweaty (and now very thirsty) out-of-towner makes his happy way to the next town

The moral of the story?
dont do orienteering, kids! You could get thirsty!!

[Task]

...
The man was asking for a glass of water because he had hiccups.
The bartender pulled the gun, surprised the hell out of him, and cured his hiccups.


You'll have to try harder than that, Ally! 8 )

[Axel]

hehehehe noice :). Yea I had heard something similar to that as well. Keep em coming :)

[Ally Graham]

...
The man was asking for a glass of water because he had hiccups.
The bartender pulled the gun, surprised the hell out of him, and cured his hiccups.


You'll have to try harder than that, Ally! 8 )


That was indeed the correct answer.


2) What is It
The one who makes it sells it.
The one who buys it doesn't use it.
The one who's using it doesn't know he's using it.
What is it?

[Sausehuhn]

I don't know the english word, so I took a look into a dictionary, I hope it's the right one:

a coffin?

[G'Kyl]

Damn it, that's good thinking Sausehuhn! :) I was thinking more metaphorically and couldn't figure a possible answer. Now I know why. ;) By the way, I have a similar riddle. Anyone interested in hearing it or should I forward it to Ally?

Ben

[Axel]

yeah post it while your at it. coffin, nice :P

[Ally Graham]

Yes, coffin is right.

Yep, go ahead and post it.

[G'Kyl]

OK, so I googled up the riddle in order to see whether I got it right, and what I found out is that it's not quite the unique invention I once thought it was. Anyway, here it is anyway, simply because I still think it's a very nice one. Whoever already knows the answer, maybe you can hold back a while and give the rest of the crowd a while to think. :)

The question of course is: What is it?
It is more powerful than God.
It is more evil than the Devil.
The poor have it.
The rich need it.
If you eat it you will die.

Ben

[Thruster2097]

the Amiga 1200?

[Lance]

.
the Disney Channel?
;)
.

[Mobius]

More like fox news...

[G'Kyl]

Great. I was asking you a serious question, guys! :evil:

:D

[Lance]

.
but you said hold off if we already knew the correct answer
.

[Hellfire_WZ]

I know this one. Don't know how long we can keep it back though. :wink:

[G'Kyl]

Is it SUCH a well-known puzzle really? I wouldn't know since I didn't grew up in an English speaking country, but you all seem to already know the answer...

Ben

[silaris]

I can't think of an object that one would eat that'd kill em, but I came up with either Money or Faith (or something close to that)

Thinking of "eat" is more of a different term, other than actually eating food.

Just the last part has got me.

[Task]

Yes, it's very well known.

Ever since JMS used it in B5, I think.

I've got a couple less well known riddles around here somewhere...

[G'Kyl]

JMS used it in B5? *looks at his nickname* Damn it, I should have known that, shouldn`t I...

Anyway, I guess we better move on and let NOTHING stop us then. Go ahead Task and post some more. :)

Ben

[Axel]

So wot was the anwser? :oops:

[G'Kyl]

NOTHING
:-)

[Task]

Found 'em. They're not as good as I remember. Here they are anyway:

1) I weaken you at the worst times. I protect you, keep you from danger. I'll make your hands sweat and your heart beat double.

2) I run through the mountains, jump across rivers, and crawl through the woods. If you put a foot outside the door, you can trip me.

3) Two bodies I have, in the middle connected. The better I stand still, the faster I run.

4) The beginning of the end, the end of space, the start of eternity.

5) Four brothers born together! The first one does alway run, but never gets tired. The second one does always eat, but never has enough. The third one does always drink, but never has thirst. The fourth one does always sing, but never at his loudest.

Individually they're not very difficult, but the challenge here is to figure out ALL of them.

Ready? Go! 8 )

[Lance]

.
number 3 = Correct!
.

edit: oops, i should have read the entire post first before guessing at the first one that seemed i had a likely answer.

edit by Task: Your guess was correct, but I have hidden it from others till we have a winner

[zargz]

well I cant get them All but 2 of them:

1. any of the psx wipEouts! 8)

2. the wind?http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/huh.gif


Praeterea censeo autopilotum esse delendam

[Task]

And Lance is eliminated! 8 D

zargz has made the first couple checkpoints, but hasn't made it to the finish line yet!

[Bob Todd]

I know what four is - I've seen variants on it before.

[Lance]

.
even though i know the correct answer to 4, my choice would be The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
.

[Axel]

My guess for four is the beginning of a black hole. It could be true!!!

[Ally Graham]

Sorry there has been no updates on here, I will add another puzzle soon.

[Shem]

is no 4 - Death?

[piranha wiper]

zargz wrote
amiga 1200
roflmfao, :lol:

task's puzzles

1,fear

2, rocks?

3, hourglass

4, E

5, piece of pie, wind earth water fire

if i got them right i think 3 is wrong but definatley 2 is, i got a couple of riddles my self

[Task]

Very close to a perfect lap, but your #2 is wrong.

#1 = Fear, #3 = Hourglass, #4 = The letter E, #5 = The four elements.
4 outta 5 is pretty good.

And the answer to #2 is... A Road.
(you can "trip" a road... by travelling on it!)

... Yes, it's a cheap "english language" pun, but it's all good.

Oh, here's another "english language" pun: What's brown and sticky?
.
.
.
.
.
A STICK!

I was laughing for days when I first heart that one.

[piranha wiper]

lol simple things please simple minds, is my go now? yeah!

i live for the laughter i live for the crowd without it i am nothing! what am i?

i can tolerate the stars i cant abide the sun, banish me with torrch light and see turn and run, what am i?

[Task]

1) A Stand-Up Comic

2) The Darkness!

[piranha wiper]

number 1 correct

number 2 err i was thinking of a different answer but ill accept i was looking for was the night

i got it from the woods, i sat down to seek this, i brought it because i could not find it, what is it?

i always was, and always have been, i forever go, but never leave, i am sometimes regreted and sometimes not, i will forever live and will not die, what am i

[Rapier Racer]

A 99 lap arcade race on Rollcage Stage II :D

[Task]

The Night? Nah, "The Night" doesn't flee from a flame! It's still there, you can still see it around you. The Darkness, however, that will flee a flame. Check your source perhaps, but I'm pretty sure my answer is slightly more correct.

The New #2: Time.

The first one though... can you check/fix the grammar on that? I'm having trouble parsing that english sentence there. I'm pretty sure I could get it if only it was less obfuscated about what "it" and "that" and "this" is in each case. 8 P

[piranha wiper]

i got it from the woods, i sat down to seek it, i brought it home because i could not find it, what is it?

that ones better to read now,

time, incorrect its on the right tracks though

[Task]

It's been a while, but I was recently reminded that I never did solve these.
Reading over them again, I have two new answers.

1) An Idea (or thought)

2) The Past

[Ally Graham]

Which puzzle are you trying to do?

[Ally Graham]

I'll start this up again then.

3) Death in a Field
A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is an unopened package. There is no other creature in the field. How did he die?

[Drakkenmensch]

The unopened package is a DEFECTIVE PARACHUTE ;)

[Ally Graham]

Correct!

4) The Realisation
A man was walking downstairs in a building when he suddenly realised that his wife had just died. How?

[piranha wiper]

It's been a while, but I was recently reminded that I never did solve these.
Reading over them again, I have two new answers.

1) An Idea (or thought)

2) The Past



spot on "past" was what i was looking for coz you cant regret "time" because it might not have happened yet, know what im saying?? :D

the man knew his wife was dead because he saw her on the stairs, tadaaa!

[Ally Graham]

No, he did not see her, nor hear her.
He had not contact with the her or her 'killer'.

Clue: He was off to see her.

[piranha wiper]

lol i know the answer but i looked it up and its a bit over the top to figure something like that out, i wont say itl just spiol it

[piranha wiper]

he realised she died when he killed coz he was angry that she said "i dont like this dress im gonna have to change it" for the 17th time so he stabed her several times :D

[Mobius]

Is it she is on a life support machine and while he is going up the hospitals stairs, there is a blackout throughout the city?

[piranha wiper]

yeah thats the real answer :lol:

[Ally Graham]

Yep, sure is the answer

[Mobius]

Oh i'm good... :)

I had a teacher a primary school who kept on giving these kind of questions out so it's almost subconcious.

[Ally Graham]

5) The Broken Match
A man is found dead in a field. He is clutching a broken match. What happened?

[element42]

he fell out of an aeroplane and used the match to break his fall - it didn't save his life, though (unsurprisingly). :?:

[Mobius]

He tried to light a fag up while doused in petrol?

Remember kids, smoking kills :P

[piranha wiper]

He tried to light a fag up while doused in petrol?

Remember kids, smoking kills :P

damn! i gotta quit them eh? :cry: some thing to do with draw ing a short straw on a hot air baloon and he had to get shot off

[Task]

These are the riddles I'm solving:



i got it from the woods, i sat down to seek this, i brought it because i could not find it, what is it?

i always was, and always have been, i forever go, but never leave, i am sometimes regreted and sometimes not, i will forever live and will not die, what am i
I know yours, BTW.
That package... it should be on his back shouldn't it? 8 )

[piranha wiper]

task, youve already got em right

[Task]

I missed a whole page! I was replying to the last thing on the previous page, didn't even realize that there'd been, like, 30 replies in the past couple hours.

Wow, active thread now that I've resurrected it. 8 )

[Ally Graham]

Clues:
-A hot air baloon as involved.
-The match did not cause his death, but brought about it.
-There were more people involved, none of them had broken matches.

[Ally Graham]

OK, so that one was not too good, we can move onto the next one.

6) Push that Car
A man pushed his car. He stopped when he reached a hotel at which point he knew he was bankrupt. Why?

[Mobius]

Playing monopoly! :)

[Ally Graham]

Correct!

7) Friday
A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and then left on Friday. How come?

[element42]

Friday was his horse.

[Ally Graham]

Correct!


Not so much a lateral thinking puzzle, more logical:
8) Manhole Covers
Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?

[phantom]

this is so unbelievably simple!!!

[element42]

thanks for that, Phantom. Very constructive. :roll:
Anyway, Ally, is it so they fit on the round manholes?

[Ally Graham]

No, that is not the answer.
The square covers go on the square holes, and round on round.

[phantom]

square manhole covers canfall down the manhole if turned properly and do great damage to anyone down there but round ones cant

[Ally Graham]

Correct!


This is the classic puzzle:
9) The man in the Elevator
A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the ground floor to go to work or to go shopping. When he returns he takes the elevator to the seventh floor and walks up the stairs to reach his apartment on the tenth floor. He hates walking so why does he do it?

[element42]

oh yeah :brickwall and i'm suposed to be good with that spatial awareness stuff.

[phantom]

ive answered already so im not going to spoil this one

[element42]

man is very short. can't reach button for 11.

[Ally Graham]

Correct!

Another classic:
10) Whodunit?
A policeman was walking past a house. He heard someone cry, "Don't shoot me, John! Don't shoot!" There was one gunshot. The policeman entered the house and saw a lawyer, priest, and an engineer, gathered around a dead body. The priest was immediately arrested.
How did the policeman know?

[Mobius]

Bingo!

[Task]

5) The Broken Match
A man is found dead in a field. He is clutching a broken match. What happened?



Just got back from the cottage, figured it out on the drive up.

He was in a balloon with a bunch of other people and they were losing altitude. For some reason, they couldn't land and had to stay in the air, so they had to drop some weight. They "drew straws" with matchsticks, he lost, he got the boot.

[Ally Graham]

Near spot on!

[Drakkenmensch]

Here's my feeble attempt at solving this :)

A rich businessman was in a small lightweight plane and decided to light himself a cigar during the flight. He took a wooden match (cigar afficianados swear by those) and scratched it on the door in a casual display of style, but pressed too hard and the match snapped, his finger slipping to hit the "door release" button. The subsequent air pressure vacuum sucked him out of the plane.

[Task]

10) Whodunit?
A policeman was walking past a house. He heard someone cry, "Don't shoot me, John! Don't shoot!" There was one gunshot. The policeman entered the house and saw a lawyer, priest, and an engineer, gathered around a dead body. The priest was immediately arrested.
How did the policeman know?



There's so many possible answers to this.
1) The priest was holding a smoking gun.
2) Those 3 guys had nametags on.
3) The cop knew either the priest (one of the congregation, perhaps?) or both the lawyer and the engineer. It's easy to know who "John" is in this case.

Those are the 3 most likely, I imagine #3 is the one suggested by the puzzle.

[xEik]

I think the lawyer and the engineer are women. Priests usually aren't. ;)

[Ally Graham]

I think the lawyer and the engineer are women. Priests usually aren't. ;)
Correct!

Next puzzle coming later.

[piranha wiper]

9) The man in the Elevator
A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the ground floor to go to work or to go shopping. When he returns he takes the elevator to the seventh floor and walks up the stairs to reach his apartment on the tenth floor. He hates walking so why does he do it?

Every evening when he gets home a fat lunatic gets on the lift at a middle floor, sits on him, and slaps his cheeks to the tune of Bonanza for the rest of the night. To avoid this he has to get out before the lunatic's floor and walk the rest of the way.#

i wanna do a test. you can either have the daft answer or the proper one lol

A hunter aimed his gun carefully and fired. Seconds later, he realised his mistake. Minutes later, he was dead. Explain

[element42]

the bullet was attached to his lower intestine, which unravelled during the bullets flight, leaving him, literally, gutless?

[piranha wiper]

:lol: not quite lol

[element42]

damn! and i was sure i had that one. :)

[Drakkenmensch]

The bullet hit in the head a criminal biker left to guard a secret marijuana field in the woods, and minutes later the whole gang of them beat him to death :D

[piranha wiper]

konbanwa, its none of them, but i do like the way everybodys trying to gethe daft answer :lol: