Classic lateral thinking puzzles – new twists – multiple solutions – clues – and a reader challenge to submit your own original answers
Lateral Thinking Bankruptcy Puzzle … (with multiple answers)
A man pushes his car until he reaches a hotel, at which point he realizes that he is bankrupt.
Why?
Clue – This car wasn’t broken or out of fuel.
Answer – The man is playing Monopoly.
Muxy’s Answer – The man lives at the hotel. A finance company sent someone to repossess his car. He pushed the car in the hope that he can convince the agent of the finance company that the car is broken and isn’t worth the effort of repossessing. When he arrives at the hotel, the agent doesn’t fall for his ploy, and he is locked out of his hotel room unable to pay his bill.
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The death that puzzles.
While walking across a large open field, you come across a man that has died very suddenly, unexpectedly, and only a very short time ago.
You look around but there is no one and nothing about except for an unopened package next to the man.
How did he die?
Clue – The man’s death was accidental.
.
Answer – The unopened package was the man’s parachute.
Muxy’s answer – The man was supposed to throw a package of vital medical supplies down to troops on the ground but slipped and fell.
Zed’s answer – The man who died near an unopened package might have been stung by a bee and died from anaphylaxis before he could open the box containing his EpiPen.
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Police raid with a puzzling outcome.
Police are given a tip-off to the location of a man who just murdered someone. They don’t know what he looks like.
When they enter the room, they see a poker game in play between a carpenter, a truck driver, a fireman, and a mechanic. Without hesitation, they arrest the fireman.
How do they know that they’ve chosen correctly?
Clue – Equal opportunity
Answer – Only the fireman was a man, the rest were women.
Muxy’s Answer – The location was a “visitor area” at a jail. The fireman was visiting with three inmates, playing a friendly game of cards to enjoy their time together. They clearly didn’t have equal opportunity to commit the crime.
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The locked cellar puzzles.
A woman was told to never open the locked cellar door or she would be in big trouble.
One day, she decided to force open the door. She then left, never to return, and went straight to the police station even though there was nothing unusual in the cellar.
Why?
Clue – She didn’t know if anyone would see her when she opened the door.
.
Classic answer – The woman was being kept a prisoner in the cellar.
Muxy’s answer – The woman was stationed as a security guard outside a bank’s underground vault. She succumbed to temptation but lost her nerve so turned herself into police.
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Creativity shared with children is time well spent
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The man who hanged himself puzzles
There is a large empty shed with a dead man hanging from the middle of the central rafter.
The rope around his neck is eight feet long and his feet are two feet off the ground. The nearest wall is 20 feet away from the man. It is not possible to climb up the walls or along the rafters.
The man hanged himself.
How did he do it?
Clue – The floor is wet.
“He was just hanging there …”
.
Classic answer – The man stood on a large block of ice.
Muxy’s answer – The rope is made from a material that shrinks when it gets wet.
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A lateral thinking puzzle of twins.
A mother gave birth to two children within an hour of each other on the same day and year, but the children aren’t twins.
How?
Clue – There can be several related answers.
Classic answer – They were triplets, or quadruplets, or . . .
Muxy’s answer – The mother agreed to become a surrogate mother, but happened to fall pregnant at the same time.
What’s your answer? – (Have a try! More than 5,000 people a month will see your effort)
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A strange find
Eight pieces of coal, a carrot, a top hat, and a scarf are found lying on the ground.
How did they get there?
Clue – Despite their poor condition, you might use them again (except for the carrot LOL)
Classic answer – A snowman melted
Muxy’s answer – The homeowner is a prankster and wanted to confuse his neighbors by making them try and remember the snowman that never was.
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Imagination is the key:
Creative Memory Technique
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Put some clothes on!
A man dies and goes to heaven.
When he gets there, everyone is naked and appears to be only 18 years old. He sees a couple and recognizes them as Adam and Eve.
How?
Clue – He knows who they are immediately and without doubt.
Classic answer – Adam and Eve weren’t born from a woman so they had no umbilical cords or navels.
Muxy’s Answer – The man is Cain or Able and therefore recognizes his parents
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Good creative habits:
URGENT Vs IMPORTANT Time Management
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The Surgeon
A father and son are in a car crash. The father dies while the son is taken to the hospital gravely injured.
When he gets there, the surgeon says, ‘I can’t operate. This is my son!’
How is this possible?
Clue – It’s a modern world
Classic answer – The surgeon was the boy’s mother.
Muxy’s answer – The boy had two fathers. The surgeon was in a same-sex marriage.
Susan Dunn answer – The surgeon was the boy’s biological father. He’d given the boy up for adoption.
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Lateral thinking is a simple and fun lifestyle choice that reengages our imaginations to allow innovation and creativity to thrive. Everything you need to facilitate your journey can be found on this website. Some of the key pages I hope you will visit are:
- Lateral thinking examples
- Lateral thinking skills to learn and share.
- Lateral thinking ‘situation’ puzzles to inspire your creativity.
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LATERAL THINKING AUTHOR
‘Turning the groupthink tide’
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The Chicken Dilemma
Six eggs in a basket.
Six different people each take an egg.
How is it that there is still one egg in the basket?
Clue – The last person …
Classic answer – The last person took the basket with them.
Muxy’s answer – Two of the people are conjoined twins.
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Creativity is merely the combining of things that already exist … in new ways:
Creative Combinations
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A disarming proposition
A man with no left arm receives a parcel in the post. He opens the parcel to find a severed human left arm carefully preserved. He then re-wraps the arm and sends it to a second man.
Several days later, the second man, who also has no left arm, receives the package. He inspects the arm and then throws it away satisfied.
Why?
Clue – The left arm belongs to the man who mailed it in the first place.
Classic answer – The three men without left arms had been marooned on a deserted island together. Starving, they drew lots to give up their left arms for food. They had agreed that ALL three would give up their left arms no matter what. They were rescued when two of the men had given up their arms.
The third man was living up to his obligation.
Muxy’s answer – The man who severed and mailed his own arm had been at fault in a terrible road accident that had cost the other two men their arms. He wanted to demonstrate his remorse.
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NO FEAR! Speak impressively on any subject at any time:
Creative Public Speaking
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Bags of marbles
You have 12 marbles and 3 bags.
How many different quantities can you load in each bag yet still have the same number of marbles in each bag?
And what are those quantities?
Clue – There are three quantities … or not.
Classic answer – !2, 6, and 4. You can achieve this by putting one or two bags inside another.
Muxy’s answer – Or Zero. The bags are too small for the marbles.
What’s Your Answer? – (Scroll down to leave your answer, and PLEASE take a moment to “subscribe” to my blog)
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Exceptional goals require exception vision:
Creative Goal-Setting
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Challenge the way things are … even if you believe things are working well:
Escape Dominant Thinking
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Tall and Short
Two men want to open a high window in a completely empty room.
One man is big and very tall, the other short.
The short man gets onto the shoulders of the big and taller man, but he is just short of reaching the window catch.
Without leaving the room, or receiving any help or tools, how do they open the window?
Clue – Their combined heights may be the same, but their heights plus . . .
Classic answer – If the taller man stands on the shoulders of the shorter man, they achieve the extra reach of the taller man’s arms.
Muxy’s answer – The taller man throws the shorter man through the window.
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The Secret Entrance
During a war, a man builds an underground bomb shelter for his family.
The very heavy steel cover of the deep vertical entrance must remain unattached as it often serves a purpose elsewhere.
The man is not worried that the heavy steel might accidentally fall through the hole and onto one of his children or wife though.
Why?
Clue – One solution is in common use today
Classic answer – The cover is round and can’t fit through the hole
Muxy’s answer – The cover is securely and permanently tethered to an anchor-point midway between the “other purpose” and the underground shelter so that it just reaches.
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Creative advice for the entrepreneurial spirit:
Entrepreneurial Creativity
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Marble in a bottle
You place a marble inside a bottle and put a cork firmly into the neck.
Is it possible to get the marble out without removing the cork or breaking/cutting the bottle?
Clue – It happens sometimes at a dinner party.
Classic answer – Push the cork into the bottle
Muxy’s answer – Drill a hole through the cork
What’s your answer? – (Take a moment to “subscribe” to my blog)
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For even more puzzles, use the drop-down menu
Michael Muxworthy - Lateral Thinking Author 