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Lateral Thinking Puzzles
These lateral thinking puzzles have been made popular by Paul Sloane. They all have ingenious solutions that you wished you'd have thought of ! Clicking on 'Solution' for a puzzle pops up a solution window like this. All solutions will appear in that window. You can then re-arrange the main window and the solutions window to appear on your desktop separately. This way, you can have a permanent solutions window that is refreshed when you view a new solution without disturbing the main window.
Check out Paul's Home Page and Lateral Thinking Forum
The Puzzles (Difficulty rating 1 Easy - 4 Difficult indicated by )

Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn but there is a perfectly logical reason why they should be there. What is it?

A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?

A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die?

A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out. Explain this situation.

A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is an unopened package. There is no other creature in the field. How did he die?

A dead man is hanging from the middle of a completely empty barn. The rope around his neck is ten feet long and his feet are three feet off the ground. The nearest wall is twenty feet away from the man. It is not possible to climb up the walls. The man hanged himself. How did he do it?

On his death bed, a rancher came up with a scheme to pass on his estate. He called in his two sons, and told them to each take their horse and race to the nearest town and back. The horse that camesecond would win the estate for its owner. The young cowboys set out but were obviously trying to go as slow as possible in order in finish second. They were stopped by a knowledgeable villager and asked what they were doing. The sons explained the situation to the villager. The villager thought for a minute then came up with an idea that had the sons hurtling off at breakneck speed. What did the villager propose ?

Mr. Fusspot found a fly in his coffee and sent the waiter back to get him a fresh cup. When his fresh cup arrived, he took one sip and knew the waiter had given him back the same cup without the fly. How did he know ?

A man lives on the 40th floor of a tower block. Every day he comes down the elevator to the ground floor where a cab picks him up to go to work. On his return journey, he goes up to the 35th floor and walks the remaining five floors to his apartment. Once in a while, he rides all the way to the 40th floor but this only happens occasionally. Can you explain this man's eccentric behaviour ?

A man is stranded on an island 200m high surrounded by shark-infested waters. The wind is blowing from East to West. A fire begins in the Eastern most part of the island and is spreading rapidly through the bushes, trees and shrub towards the man who is standing on the Western most side of the island. The man does not have any water to put out the fire, faces certain death if he jumps off the island, and cannot dig a hole into the hard surface. How does he survive ?

Romeo and Juliet lie dead in a pool of water in a room. The only clue to their death is an open window and broken glass on the floor. How did they die ?

A man parks his car outside a hotel, and immediately knows he is bankrupt.How ?

A man is walking home drunk from the pub. He is wearing black trousers, and a black coat. He is so drunk that he wanders in the road and is staggering drunkenly down the centre of it. A car comes towards him at high speed but manages to avoid him. How ?

A man walks into a pub, puts a pound on the bar and says to the barmaid, "Pint of lager please". The barmaid asks him if he would like Fosters or Kronenbourg. He asks for Kronenbourg. Later that same day, another man enters the same bar, puts a pound on the bar and asks for a pint of lager. The barmaid immediately pours him a pint of Kronenbourg. How did the barmaid know what beer the second man wanted ? The men are unrelated, have never met, have never drunk in the bar before, and have never met the barmaid.

Upon entering a forest, you are confronted with two paths. One leads to certain death, the other leads to a way out. On each path is a goblin. One of these goblins always tells the truth. The other always tells lies. You don't know which is which, and what path they are beside. What one question do you ask to enable you to select the right path ?