Riddles and Puzzles for Critical Thinking
Riddles and Puzzles for Critical Thinking
with five cigarette butts. Today he is lucky, he has found 25 cigarette butts. How many cigarettes
Will be able to do?
2. Before Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
4. A milkman has 2 empty bottles, one of 3 gallons and one of 5 gallons. He wants to
measure 1 exact gallon. How can you do that?
8. How can this equation be modified with a single change (straight line) to make it
correct?
5 + 5 + 5 = 550
9. Eugenio died after a long life of 87 years, but on his tomb they wrote the
next epitaph:
Eugenio lived a good and long life - He loved his children and his beautiful wife - He was
good, generous and deserved the best - Even if he only had 21 birthdays. What is it like
Is this possible?
10. A horse is tied to a 20-foot rope. The horse wants to drink some
water that is 30 feet away. The horse reaches the water
easily. How is this possible?
11. If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you no longer have me. What am I?
A girl was 13 years old on her last birthday, and she will be 15 years old on her next.
birthday. How is this possible?
What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment, and never in a hundred years?
14. Juan and Susana both have some apples. If Juan gives an apple to Susana,
both will have the same number of apples. If Susana gives him one
If Juan gets an apple, he will have double the apples that Susana has.
How many apples does each of them have?
16. This is the only crime that cannot be punished if it is committed. What is it?
17. Give me food and I will live. Give me water and I will die. What am I?
18. We fill a bathtub with water. If we had a small spoon, a cup, and a bucket, what
What would you do to empty the bathtub as soon as possible?
You use a knife to cut off my head and cry by my side when I am dead.
What am I?
23. What are the two things that no one eats before breakfast?
24. Two mothers and two daughters were making pies. Each of them made a pie.
But in the end, there were only three pies. How is this possible?
25. Two men from a chess club were playing chess. They played five games.
Each one won the same number of games. How is this possible?
possible?
26. What word has all 26 different letters in it?
27. How can you put 21 oranges in 4 bags and still have an odd number of
oranges in each bag?
28. Two teachers teach at the same school. One is the father of the other's son. What
What is their relationship?
29. How can the pockets of the pants be empty but still have something?
inside?
30. In what year did Christmas Day and New Year's Eve fall on the same day?
31. You and Margarita have the same amount of strawberries. How many strawberries does she have to
give Margarita so that she has 10 more than her?
A man walked under heavy rain for twenty minutes without getting wet at all.
only hair from his head. He wasn't wearing a hat, nor an umbrella, nor
The subject swims under his head. His clothes were soaked. How was this possible?
35. I have little hands but I can't clap. I can't speak but I can respond to
A question. What am I?
36. A man in prison receives a visitor. Afterwards, the guard asks the prisoner
who was the visitor. The prisoner replies: "I have no siblings nor
sisters, but the father of that man is the son of my father.
What is the relationship between the prisoner and the visitor?
37. He always wants it. Sometimes he can have it, but it never lasts forever. What is it?
How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 20?
39. He has married many women, but he has never been married. Who is he?
40. Two people were born at exactly the same moment, but they do not have the same
birthday. How can this be?
41. Even if they starve, the natives of the Arctic will never eat an egg of
penguin. Why not?
42. There are two ropes and both take exactly 1 hour to burn from one end to the other.
He cannot cut the rope. How can he burn both?
strings in a total of 45 minutes?
I have one eye, but I cannot see. I am so small that you can easily lose me.
What am I?
A basket contains 5 apples. Do you know how to divide it among 5 children so that each...
one has an apple and an apple remains in the basket?
45. I took one and scratched my head, now I am black but before I was red.
Recently a mother gave birth to two girls on the same day, at the same time, in the
same month and year and yet they are not twins. How is this possible?
possible?
47. Where can you find streets without vehicles, forests without trees, and cities without
houses?
I only have two spines and thousands of ribs. I go around the world without
move me. What am I?
53. Three closed boxes have apples, bananas, or both, and are labeled
"apples", "bananas" and "mixed". However, each box has the incorrect label.
in it. You can only open one box to see its contents. Which box should you open to
find out the contents of the three boxes?
58.
Jesica has two hourglasses, one for 11 minutes and the other for 13 minutes. She wants to measure
15 minutes exactly. How can this be done?
A woman was horrified to find a fly in her tea. The waiter picked up
her cup and went to the kitchen and came back with another cup of tea. She shouted,
"He brought me the same tea!" How did he know?
62. In his sock drawer, there are 6 green socks, 4 blue socks, 8 socks
black ones, and 2 red socks. If it is dark and you can't see the
colors, how many socks should I take out to ensure I have a matching set?
Two men are in the desert. Both of them are carrying backpacks. One of them is dead.
The one who is alive has their backpack open, and the one who is dead
It is closed. What is in the backpack?
64. According to an ancient book, the crime of a man caused the elimination of 25% of the
world population. What crime was that?
I have no voice but still I speak to you. I have leaves but I am not a tree. I have a
spine and hinges but I am neither a man nor a door.
What am I?
66. He is taking a walk in the park on a cold day when he sees some objects in the
ground: A scarf, a carrot, and a few pieces of coal. What about
who do they belong to?
67. There are three light bulbs in one room. In another room, there are 3 switches that
correspond to these three bulbs (in a random order). It is in the room of the
switches and cannot see the bulbs. If you can only visit the room of the
light bulbs once, how can it find out that
Does the switch belong to each bulb?
A man was driving his truck. He didn't have the lights on. The moon was not visible.
In front, a woman was crossing the street. How did he see her?
70. They leave at night without being called, and they are lost during the day without being stolen. What are they?
72. Five men spent the whole night playing some objects. In the early morning
everyone had managed to get the same amount of money. What
were these men?
73. A man needs to cross a river. He can take a boat. But the boat can only
take one thing at a time. The man has 3 things that he has to
to take. A fox, a sheep, and cabbage. If he took the fox, then the sheep would eat the cabbage.
But if he carried the cabbage, the fox would eat the sheep.
How can it take them?
74.
Sam told his mother that "Peter's dog can jump over his house!".
At first, his mother didn't believe it, but after Jorge explained it, his mother smiled.
and agreed that Peter's dog can indeed jump over his house.
What did Jorge explain to his
mother?
75. Is it possible to jump from a 30-foot ladder to a concrete floor without getting hurt?
damage?
80. It is her birthday and she has 7 guests. How can she divide a birthday cake?
in eight equal pieces with just three straight cuts?
81. A family is on the bus. They are all very hungry, and when they see a
restaurant, press the stop button. They are the only ones getting off the bus. One hour
later they see the news and find out that the bus they were on was crushed by
a rock and half of the passengers died. They were very shocked but the mother
he said, 'I wish we had never gotten out.'
father couldn't believe what she said, before saying, 'Oh, yes.' Why would she say this?
mother?
A boy and his father are driving on a road when they crash into a...
tree. The father died instantly and the child was taken immediately to the
hospital. There, the doctor enters and says, 'Oh my God, that's my son!'
How is this possible?
83.
There are six glasses in a row. The first three are filled with wine and the other three are
empty. With just one movement, can you place them so that
Do the full and empty glasses alternate?
84. What is it that everyone needs, everyone gives, everyone asks for, and very
few take?
85. A man is imprisoned in a dungeon. At the top of one of the walls, there is a
window without bars but it is too high to reach, so the man
abandon hope of escaping through it. He decides to dig his way out. Without
embargo hours later it stops when it realizes that it would take its whole life to
dig a tunnel. A few days later, an idea comes to his mind, and he begins to dig.
new. Can you guess what his plan is?
86. A man is found dead. The detectives found him hanging with a
pool of water beneath him. How did the man die?
87. They can bring the dead back to life. They can make you cry or make you laugh or make you young.
New. They are born in an instant but last a lifetime. What are they?
You have one, others have two, a gorilla has three, and a human has four.
A personality has five and a global citizen has six.
What is it?
I am the part of the bird that is not in the sky. I can swim in the ocean and still
to be dry.
What am I?
A man was found dead with a gun in his hand. A tape recorder was
he found it on his table, next to him. The detective pressed the button of
the playback of the recorder and heard: "I can't continue. I have nothing in this
world to live in." Then the sound of a
shooting. The detective immediately said it was a murder and not a suicide.
How did you know?
94. How many animals of each species did Moses take on the Ark?
While I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had nine bags. Each bag had nine cats. Each cat had five.
kittens. Kittens, cats, bags and handcuffs, how many were going to
Saint Ives?
98. Put a coin in an empty bottle and insert a cork in the neck. How do you
Can you get the coin out without removing the cork or breaking the bottle?
99. A sundial has fewer moving parts than any other clock. Which one has more?
moving parts that everyone?
100. There is a man trapped in a room with 2 doors. In those two doors there are
the following: In the first, a sun that will fry anyone who enters. In the
second, a dragon that breathes fire and injures anyone in the room.
How does the man escape?
Clue: The answer is not 5 cigarettes.
Answer: 6 cigarettes. He makes 5 cigarettes with the 25 butts. Then he smokes them and has
5 more butts to make another cigarette.
2. Clue: The tallest mountain in the world and the tallest mountain in the world
known are not the same.
Answer: The Everest! They just hadn't discovered it yet!
4. Hint: The milkman will use the 3-gallon bottle first to pour the milk into the.
5-gallon bottle.
Response: The milkman will fill the 3-gallon bottle and pour the milk into the bottle of
5 gallons. He will fill the 3-gallon bottle with New and will continue filling the bottle.
from 5 gallons until it is full. The milk that remains in the 3-gallon bottle is
exactly 1 gallon.
5. Hint: All the numbers you can see belong to a single equation.
Respuesta: La respuesta es 30. Hay dos trucos en esta pregunta. El primero es 1 por 0.
That's just a distraction. Yes, 1 times 0 is 0, but that doesn't affect the rest. The Second
The trick is that the lines that end with 1 do not have a + sign next to them. This
It means that they must be combined with the following lines. Here are the numbers, all
in a line:
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 11 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 11 + 1 x 0 + 1 = ?
And the answer to that equation is 30.
9. Clue: Eugenio was born on a very special day, which is the answer.
Response: Eugenio was born on February 29 in a leap year. Consequently, to his
87 years, only had 21 birthdays. In the other years there wasn't a February 29.
16. Clue: The victim and the criminal are always found in the same building.
Response: Suicide
17. Clue: It is friendly when you are near but will bite you if you touch it.
Fire
18. Clue: What would you do if you were in your own bathroom?
Answer: Take the plug out of the bathtub, of course!
19. Hint: The words are acronyms. The first one is 24 'hours in a day'.
Response:
24 hours in a day
26 letters of the alphabet
7 days of the week
9 lives of a cat
12 zodiac signs
25. Clue: These two men were not the only ones who played chess at the club that day.
They played with different people.
29. Clue: This "something" may be the reason why they are empty.
Answer: A hole.
30. Hint: Look at the calendar to see if this will happen this year.
Answer: It occurs every year on January 1st and December 25th.
31. Pista: The amount of strawberries you both have doesn't matter. 1 strawberry that is given is one strawberry.
loss.
Response: Margarita has to give him 5 strawberries. When she gives 5, she will lose 5 and you
will win 5 resulting in a net difference of 10.
32. Tip: What type of hair do you think cannot be damaged by rain?
Answer: The man simply has no hair, he is bald.
35. Track: Sometimes this is the only thing I could hear in the silence of a room.
Answer: A watch
36. Clue: The father of the visitor is the son of the father of the prisoner. Who is the son of the father?
of the prisoner?
Answer: The visitor is the child of the prisoner.
40. Hint: These two people do not live in the same city.
Respuesta: Nacieron en lugares distintos, en zonas horarias distintas.
41. pista: It's because they haven't seen many penguins lately. Do you know why?
Answer: Penguins live in Antarctica, not in the Arctic.
42. Clue: When burning a rope from both ends at the same time, the rope
will burn completely in exactly half the time. Use it
technique.
Burn one of the ropes from both ends and the other rope from one end.
After half an hour, one of the ropes will have burned completely and the other one
it will have burned halfway. At this point, light the remaining rope from the untouched side.
burned and it will take 15 minutes for the
the other half of the rope burns, a total of 45 minutes.
43. Clue: Once a god said that a camel could pass through me.
Answer: A needle. Once Jesus said, 'And again I tell you, it is easier for a...
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
The fifth child thought that the basket would make a nice gift for his mother.
Answer: 4 children receive one apple (one apple for each) and the fifth child
receive an apple with the basket too.
50. Clue: The man's age has nothing to do with the age of those two women.
Answer: That man is a priest.
53. Clue: He doesn't want to open the box containing the mixed fruit because that wouldn't help him.
determine which of the other two boxes contains the apples
and which one has the bananas.
Answer: The box with the label 'Mixed' is not the 'Mixed' box. Open it and take one out.
fruit. Let's say it's an apple. It must be the box of 'apples'.
The box marked "Bananas" is not the box with the bananas. It is also not the box of the
apples. It should be the 'Mixed' box. There is one box left. It is not the one for 'Apples' nor
Neither the 'Mixed' box. It must be the box of 'Bananas'.
57. Track: What is more dangerous, fire, a murderer, or a beast that is dead?
hunger?
Answer: The third room is the safest! The lions have not eaten for three days.
Eat are dead!
58. Clue: Jessica must use both hourglasses at the same time. The 11-hour glass.
minutes should be overturned twice.
Response: Jesica will start with both watches, and when the 11-minute watch has
finished, it will immediately turn around again. When the 13-minute clock
the 11 minutes clock will have 9 minutes left, so Jesica will turn it over and
It will last another 2 minutes, 13 minutes + 2 minutes = 15 minutes.
59. Hint: She realized at the moment she drank from the new tea.
Response: I had already added sugar, and when he drank the new tea, it was already sweet.
60. Hint: What is the reason why the sun is not shining now?
Response: In 72 hours it will be midnight again, so there will be no sun!
62. Hint: Imagine that every time you take out a sock, the sock has a color.
different from the previous one that came out.
Answer: You must take out five socks. There are only four colors, so five socks.
they guarantee that two will be of the same color.
63. Clue: The last words of the dead man were "my God, it doesn't open!"
Answer: Parachute.
65. Hint: It is not a tree but its leaves are made of tree.
Answer: A book.
67. Tip: When the light bulbs turn on, two things happen: light and heat.
Response: Turn on one of the bulbs for a period of time long enough
Long enough to heat it. Then turn it off.
Turn on the second switch and go to the bulb room.
There will be a paid and heated light bulb (the first switch that turned on), a
bulb that is cold and is on (the second switch), and a bulb
off and cold (the third switch).
73. Clue: The man can cross the river with the boat as many times as he wants.
Response: The man takes the sheep first (the fox will not eat the cabbage). After that,
man returns and takes the fox, but brings back the
sheep. Leaves the sheep and takes the cabbage to the other side. Then comes back again and brings the
the sheep.
74. Hint: What house can the dog jump over? Think a little....
Respuesta: Lo que dijo Sam inicialmente confundió a su madre pero Jorge lo explicó
quickly: The dog can jump over its doghouse, not the house of
Peter.
75. Riddle: What does it do if it knows that the higher it is, the more damage it will do?
Answer: You can jump from the lower step!
78. Hint: Think of someone who hates white cats as much as black ones.
Answer: When you are a mouse!
81. Pista: What did the mother think that made her feel guilty about what happened?
Answer: If they hadn't gotten off, the bus would never have stopped and would be more
forward on the road when the rock fell.
82. Clue: The doctor has a close relationship with the man who died.
Answer: The doctor is the mother of the child.
83. Challenge: Be creative! You can also move the contents of the glass.
Answer: Pour the wine from the second glass into the fifth glass.
85. Clue: Their plan has to do with the window without bars.
Response: He wants to collect the dirt after digging and climb on top of it to reach.
to the window.
Clue: The murderer placed something under the man's feet. What did he place?
The man was on top of a block of ice that melted.
90. Clue: The guard did something that Mr. Parker didn't like. What was that?
Respuesta: ¡¡¡El Sr. Parker despidió a Paul, el vigilante nocturno, porque la otra noche
he fell asleep at work!!!
91. Clue: Imagine a bird flying above you. What part of the bird does not
Is it in the air?
Answer: Shadow
92. Clue: It's so obvious that the detective didn't even have to rewind the tape to
reproduce the message again!
Response: The tape started at the beginning of the message, so someone else had it.
rewound and then he had left the room.
94. Clue: First, ask yourself: When did he build the ark, before or after freeing?
the Hebrews from their slavery?
Answer: None, it was Noah who built the Ark!
99. Clue: It is also one of the oldest devices for measuring time.
Answer: An hourglass, with thousands of grains of sand.
100. Hint: A better question would be.. When does man escape?
Answer: Wait until it is night and go out through the first door.