Riddles › Lateral Thinking Puzzles
20 Lateral Thinking Puzzles With Answers
Read it, guess, then tap to check. No peeking.
Try each one before you peek. Answers shown: 0 of 20
1. A man lives on the 10th floor. Every day he takes the elevator down, but coming home he rides to the 7th floor and walks up, unless it's raining. Why?
He is short and can only reach the 7th-floor button, except with an umbrella.
2. A woman shoots her husband, holds him underwater for five minutes, then hangs him. Later they go out to dinner. How?
She's a photographer: she shot a picture, developed it and hung it to dry.
3. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it and gray when you throw it away?
Charcoal.
4. A man walks out of a house in the rain with no umbrella or hat, yet not a hair on his head gets wet. How?
He's bald.
5. How could a cowboy ride into town on Friday, stay two days and leave on Friday?
His horse is named Friday.
6. A truck is stuck under a bridge. How do you free it without damaging the bridge or truck?
Let some air out of the tires.
7. What can you put in a barrel to make it lighter?
A hole.
8. What has a head and a tail, is brown, and has no legs?
A penny.
9. A plane crashes exactly on the border between two countries. Where do they bury the survivors?
You don't bury survivors.
10. Can a man legally marry his widow's sister?
No, because if he has a widow, he is dead.
11. Two people are born at the same moment but have different birthdays. How?
They're born in different time zones (one side of midnight in each).
12. What disappears as soon as you say its name?
Silence.
13. A man is found dead in a field with an unopened package beside him. How did he die?
His parachute (the package) didn't open.
14. You walk into a dark room with a match. There's an oil lamp, a candle and a fireplace. What do you light first?
The match.
15. What can run but never walks?
Water (or a nose).
16. Which word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?
'Incorrectly'.
17. A cat had three kittens: January, March and May. What was the mother's name?
What (the question says so).
18. A father and son are in a car crash. The son is taken to hospital and the surgeon says, 'I can't operate, he's my son.' How?
The surgeon is his mother.
19. If an electric train is traveling south, which way does the smoke go?
Electric trains don't make smoke.
20. What occurs once in every minute, twice in every moment, yet never in a thousand years?
The letter M.