Hard Riddles and Answers

Question: A criminal is brought into a prison for major crimes. The warden informs him that he will be shot in the middle of the prison by 20 of his men. The prisoner is fine with that but he asks for some conditions "All of your men must stand 20 feet away from me and I must be able to select where each of them stands. If I survive, I get to leave."

The warden thinks about it and knows that all of his men will still have an open shot at the criminal, so he agrees.

The next day immediately after the firing squad is positioned the criminal walks out untouched. How did he do it?

Question: There is a prison with 100 prisoners, each in separate cells with no form of contact. There is an area in the prison with a single light bulb in it. Each day, the warden picks one of the prisoners at random, even if they have been picked before, and takes them out to the lobby. The prisoner will have the choice to flip the switch if they want. The light bulb starts off.

When a prisoner is taken into the area with the light bulb, he can also say "Every prisoner has been brought to the light bulb." If this is true all prisoners will go free. However, if a prisoner chooses to say this and it's wrong, all the prisoners will be executed. So a prisoner should only say this if he knows it is true for sure.

Before the first day of this process begins, all the prisoners are allowed to get together to discuss a strategy to eventually save themselves.

What strategy could they use to ensure they will go free?

Question: There are 5 houses painted 5 different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. These 5 people each drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. None of them have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage.

The Brit lives in the red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is on the left of the white house.
The green homeowner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer.
The German smokes prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

Who owns the fish?

Question: When my first is a task to a young girl of spirit,
And my second confines her to finish the piece,
How hard is her fate! But how great is her merit
If by taking my whole she effects her release!

Question: Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a sports car; behind all of the others is bicycles. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 2, revealing a bicycle. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 3?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

Question: How many people do you need to have the odds be in favor (at least 50% chance) of two people having the same birthday?

Question: A man is stuck on an island with his best friend and a fisherman. The fisherman and his best friend go off to catch food while he builds a hut. The fisherman returns alone with some salmon he had prepared. His best friend had fallen off a cliff.

After he is rescued from the man goes to a diner and he orders salmon. He eats his meal, he pulls out a gun and commits suicide. Why does he do this?

Question: There is a basket full of hats. 3 of them are white and 2 of them are black. There are 3 men Tom, Tim, and Jim. They each take a hat out of the basket and put it on their heads without seeing the hat they selected or the hats the other men selected. The men arrange themselves so Tom can see Tim and Jim's hats, Tim can see Jim's hat, and Jim can't see anyone's hat.

Tom is asked what color his hat is and he says he doesn't know.
Tim is asked the same question, and he also doesn't know.
Finally, Jim is asked the question, and he does know.

What color is his hat?

Question: If you have an 11 minute and 13 minute hourglass, how can you accurately time 15 minutes?

Question: You have a glass of water that looks about half full. How can you tell, only using the glass of water itself, if the glass is half full or not?

The glass is a right cylinder.