One snowy night, Sherlock Holmes was in his house sitting by a fire. All of a sudden a snowball came crashing through his window, breaking it. Holmes got up and looked out the window just in time to see three neighborhood kids who were brothers run around a corner. Their names were John Crimson, Mark Crimson and Paul Crimson. The next day Holmes got a note on his door that read “? Crimson. He broke your window.” Which of the three Crimson brothers should Sherlock Holmes question about the incident?

I woke up one night and heard my clock strike “one.” I was too tired to turn on the light to see what time it was. As I lay there pondering, it occurred to me to speculate how long I would have to lie awake in order to be sure what was the exact time. My clock strikes the hours and strikes “one” each half hour. I fell asleep before I solved the problem, but can you work out what is the longest time I would have to lie awake after hearing the strike “one,” to be sure of the time?

A traveller comes to a fork in the road which leads to two villages. In one village the people always tell lies, and in the other village the people always tell the truth. The traveller needs to conduct business in the village where everyone tells the truth. A man from one of the villages is standing in the middle of the fork, but there is no indication of which village he is from. The traveller approaches the man and asks him one question. From the villager’s answer, he knows which road to follow. What did the traveller ask?

Melissa, Jessica, Sandy and Nicole were working on the computer. Suddenly, I heard a crash and then lots of shouts. I rushed in to find out what was going on, finding the computer monitor on the ground, surrounded with broken glass! Sandy and Jessica spoke almost at the same time: Jessica said, “It wasn’t me!” Sandy said, “It was Nicole!” Melissa said, “No, it was Sandy!” Nicole said, “Sandy’s a liar.” Only one of them was telling the truth, so who broke the monitor?

Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for seventeen minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and it’s only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in 1 minute, another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the fourth takes 10 minutes to cross. How do the campers cross the bridge in 17 minutes?

There was a man who went to the mall where he bought 3 pairs of red socks and 3 pairs of white socks. Another man who had already bought 3 pairs of red socks and 3 pairs of white socks was on the way back to return his 6 pairs of socks. They were both blind. As they were walking, they bumped into each other. All the socks scattered around the floor, but each pair remained held together by a rubber band. Nobody helped them pick the socks up, but in 3 minutes they both had 3 pairs of red, and 3 pairs of white. How is that possible if they are blind?

There are three jars filled with candies. One jar is filled with banana candies, one jar is filled with lemon candies and one jar has a mix of both. All the jars are mislabelled (i.e. all the jars have wrong labels about what kind of candies they contain). All the candies look very similar in shape, size and color and they even smell the same. The only way to distinguish them is by tasting. You have to eat one and only one candy to determine the correct jar labels. You can eat that one candy from any jar you want as long as you eat only one in total.

There are three jars filled with candies. One jar is filled with banana candies, one jar is filled with lemon candies and one jar has a mix of both. All the jars are mislabelled (i.e. all the jars have wrong labels about what kind of candies they contain). All the candies look very similar in shape, size and color and they even smell the same. The only way to distinguish them is by tasting. You have to eat one and only one candy to determine the correct jar labels. You can eat that one candy from any jar you want as long as you eat only one in total.

Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. Everyone knows that the queen only speaks the truth. What happens?

General Custer is surrounded by Indians and he’s the only cowboy left. He finds an old lamp in front of him and rubs it. Out pops a genie. The genie grants Custer one wish, with a catch. He says, “Whatever you wish for, each Indian will get two of the same thing.” Custer ponders a while and thinks:”If I get a bow and arrow they get two. If I get a rifle they get two!” He then rubs the bottle again and out pops the genie. “Well,” the genie asks “have you made up your mind?” What did Custer ask for to help him get away?

You are given two eggs, and access to a 100-storey building. Both eggs are identical. The aim is to find out the highest floor from which an egg will not break when dropped from a floor. If an egg is dropped and does not break, it is undamaged and can be dropped again. However, once an egg is broken, it cannot be used anymore. If an egg breaks when dropped from floor N, then it would also have broken from any floor above that. If an egg survives a fall from floor N, then it will also survive any fall below floor N. What is the minimum number of egg drops required to find the solution?

A group of campers have been on vacation so long, that they’ve forgotten the day of the week. The following conversation ensues.Darryl: What day is it? I don’t think it is Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Tracy: Well that doesn’t narrow it down much. Yesterday was Sunday. Melissa: Yesterday wasn’t Sunday, tomorrow is Sunday. Ben: The day after tomorrow is Saturday. Adrienne: The day before yesterday was Thursday. Susie: Tomorrow is Saturday. David: I know that the day after tomorrow is not Friday. If only one person’s statement is true, what day of the week is it?

A man placed a $100 dollar bill on his desk and left for work. When he returned back the money was gone. He has three suspects: the cook, the maid and the electrician. The cook said he put the bill under a book on his desk to keep it safe. The man checked and it is no longer there. The maid said she moved the bill to the inside of the book between page 1 and 2 while she was cleaning. Again, the man checked the book and there was nothing between page 1 and 2. The electrician said he saw the bill sticking out of the book and he moved it between page 2 and 3 to keep it safe. Who stole the money?

Ben was found dead in his study by Peter. Peter recounted his dismal discovery to the police. “I was walking by Ben’s house when I thought I would just pop in for a visit. I noticed his study light was on and I decided to peek in from the outside to see if he was in there. There was frost on the window, so I had to wipe it away to see inside. That is when I saw his body. So I kicked in the front door to confirm my suspicions of foul play. I called the police immediately afterward.” The officer immediately arrested Peter for the murder of Ben. How did the officer know that Peter was lying?

During certain local floods five married couples found themselves surrounded by water, and had to escape from their unpleasant position in a boat that would only hold three persons at a time. Every husband was so jealous that he would not allow his wife to be in the boat or on either bank with another man (or with other men) unless he was himself present. Show the quickest way of getting these five men and their wives across into safety. Call the men A, B, C, D, E, and their respective wives a, b, c, d,e. To go over and return counts as two crossings. No tricks such as ropes, swimming, currents, etc., are permitted.