A woman lives on the top floor of a ten-storey building. There is a lift which goes to every floor of the building. Every day, she would take this lift to the first floor to go to work. When she returns home, she would take the lift to the seventh floor, and then climb the remaining flights of stairs. Why does she do this?
The woman is a dwarf. She is tall enough to press the lift buttons from the first to the seventh floor, but too short to press the lift buttons for the remaining floors.
During the Second World War, an American bomber was on a mission over Germany. The plane was in perfect condition, and every piece of mechanism on it worked properly. When the plane reached its target, the pilot pulled the lever to open the bomb doors, which swung out in response. He then pulled the lever to release the bomb from the plane. But it failed to drop down as expected. Why should this be so?
Two grandmasters in chess competed in an international chess tournament. They played five games of chess during the competition. Each won the same number of games and lost the same number of games. There were no draws in any of these games. How could this be so?
Not far from Tokyo, there is a large disused factory. The factory is empty except for a dead man hanging from the ceiling. The rope around his neck is 4 meters long and his feet are 2 meters from the ground. There are no objects lying around for the man to stand onto, yet he hanged himself. How did he manage to do so?
There are two Asians standing at the entrance to the London Art Gallery. One of them is the father of the other one’s son. How can this be so?
In Bangkok, a taxi-driver picked up a lady who was well-known for speaking without stop. He didn’t wish to chit-chat with his passenger, so he pointed to his ears to indicate that he was deaf and could not hear. After the taxi-driver had reached his destination, he pointed the lady to the cash register so that she could see how much she owed him. The lady paid him the fare and alighted from the taxi, which drove off. It was then that she realized that the taxi-driver had been lying to her i.e., he was not deaf, instead he could hear loud and clear. How did she come to realize this?
He must have heard her initial instructions or he would not have known where to take her.
Three pretty women in beautiful gowns were standing together. Two were sad and one was happy. But the sad women were both smiling, whereas the happy woman was crying. Why should this be so?
It was the final of the Miss Universe contest. The happy winner cried because she was overwhelmed by her victory. The sad runners-up smiled because the whole world is watching them and they are expected to look radiant in defeat.
A man stood looking through the window on the 20th floor of a tall building. Suddenly he was overcome by a strong impulse. He opened the window and leapt through it. It was a sheer drop outside the building to the ground. The man did not use a parachute or land in water or on any special soft surface. Yet he was completely unhurt when he landed. How could this be so?
The man was standing outside the window rather than inside it, and he leapt into the building, rather than outside it. Why was he outside? He could either have been contemplating suicide, or he could have been a professional cleaner who was scrubbing the windows of the building.
Anthony and Cleopatra are lying dead on the floor in an Egyptian villa. Nearby is a broken bowl. There are no marks on their bodies and they were not poisoned. Not a person was in the villa when they died. How did they die?
Anthony and Cleopatra were goldfish. They died when their fishing bowl was knocked over by a rather clumsy guard dog.
Two twin sisters decided to clean out the old shed at the end of the garden. When they had finished the cleaning, one of them had a dirty face and the other had a clean face. The twin sister with the clean face washed herself, but the twin sister with the dirty face did not wash herself. Why should this be so?
Answer: When the two sisters had finished their cleaning, they had no mirror to look at, so one twin looked at the other twin. The sister with the clean face saw the dirty face of her sister. She assumed that she had a dirty face, and so went to clean her face. The sister with the dirty face saw the clean face of her sister. She assumed that she had a clean face, and so did not clean her face.
There is a thing in this world with the following characteristic: The person who makes it does not need it, the person who buys it does not use it, and the person who uses it does so without knowing. What is this thing?
A pretty woman approached a young man on the road. Without either of them saying a word, she gave him a long kiss on the lips. The woman had never seen the man before and did not know who he was. She did not find him attractive and she was not rewarded for her actions. So why did she kiss him?