# Riddles



## Solo Christo (Jul 17, 2005)

Anyone know any riddles?

Here's "The Missing Dollar":

Three guys were traveling with little money and needed a place to stay. They came to a motel and approach the front desk. The manager offeres them a single room for $30. Simple enough, the fellas went in on it $10 a piece and checked in. No sooner were they gone, however, before the manager remembered that the room was part of a Tuesday Night Special. It should have been $25. He gives five one dollar bills to the bellhop and askes him to return it to the gentlemen. On the way, the bellhop got to thinking that $5 didn't split up easily three ways. So he just gave them $3 and pocketed $2 for himself (and clearly violated the 8th Commandment).

Well, now each of the men have paid $9 for the room instead of $10. Right? Right. And 3 guys times 9 dollars equals $27. Right? Right. Plus the $2 in the bellhop's pocket equals $29. Right? Right. OK, so where's the missing dollar?

[Edited on 7-18-2005 by Solo Christo]


----------



## PuritanCovenanter (Jul 17, 2005)

They paid $25 for the room. Not $24.


----------



## Contra_Mundum (Jul 17, 2005)

Its a clever riddle, but the play has to do with the properties of multiplication and addition. The two additional dollars are "coughed up" unwittingly by the room occupants between the three of them (the equivalent of 66 2/3 cents apiece) and, ah, "tipped" to the bellhop. The two dollars do not get added to 27, but subtracted.

Bottom line: the "price" of the room, as far as the occupants go was not 30, not 25, but exactly 27 dollars ($9 apiece)--25 to the clerk, 2 to the bellhop.


----------



## Solo Christo (Jul 18, 2005)

Well done.


----------



## Scott (Jul 19, 2005)

My favorite riddle:

What is it that the poor have, the rich want, people love it more than life yet fear it more than death, and is not harmful in and of itself but if you eat it always you will die?


----------



## daveb (Jul 19, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Scott_
> My favorite riddle:
> 
> What is it that the poor have, the rich want, people love it more than life yet fear it more than death, and is not harmful in and of itself but if you eat it always you will die?



Is it "nothing"?


----------



## Scott (Jul 19, 2005)

David - yes, well done.


----------



## Contra_Mundum (Jul 19, 2005)

I should have remembered that one. It's in my wallet:

What doth man love more than life,
Hate more than death or mortal strife?
'Tis that which contented men desire,
The poor possess and the rich require,
The miser spends, the spendthrift saves,
And all men carry to theri graves.


----------



## Solo Christo (Jul 20, 2005)

The person who makes it doesn't want it.
The person who buys it doesn't need it.
The person who needs it doesn't know it.

What is it?


----------



## WrittenFromUtopia (Jul 20, 2005)

Gas?


----------



## Solo Christo (Jul 20, 2005)

> _Originally posted by WrittenFromUtopia_
> Gas?


----------



## Scott (Jul 20, 2005)

"It's in my wallet"

When I first read that I thought you were saying nothing is in your wallet. 

Anyway, that is the same riddle. I forgot the part about the miser wants spends it and the spendthrift saves it.

Where did you get the riddle?

[Edited on 7-20-2005 by Scott]


----------



## Contra_Mundum (Jul 20, 2005)

I clipped it from a newspaper.

But when I thought about how you read it as "nothing in my wallet," I realized "the joke has been on me" for quite some time now, and I didn't realize it...


----------



## sastark (Jul 21, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Solo Christo_
> The person who makes it doesn't want it.
> The person who buys it doesn't need it.
> The person who needs it doesn't know it.



A casket?


----------



## Scott (Jul 21, 2005)

Seth - that is good. That sounds right, but I will wait for the official answer.


----------



## Solo Christo (Jul 21, 2005)

> _Originally posted by sastark_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by Solo Christo_
> ...


 
Nice job, officially!


----------



## sastark (Jul 21, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Solo Christo_
> 
> Nice job, officially!



Haha. Thanks!


----------



## alwaysreforming (Jul 22, 2005)

> _Originally posted by sastark_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by Solo Christo_
> ...



I know we already have the official answer, but it doesn't seem to fit:

"The person who buys it doesn't need it."
Sure they need it. They need it to bury their dead relative in!


----------



## Average Joey (Jul 23, 2005)

I never got the riddle that Bilbo Baggins gave at his birthday party in Fellowship of the Ring.

"I like half of you, half as well as I should like, and I like half of you half as well as you deserve."

[Edited on 7-23-2005 by Average Joey]


----------



## Scott (Jul 28, 2005)

It is sort of like saying, "I would rather be with you friends than with the best people on earth."


----------



## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 28, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Average Joey_
> I never got the riddle that Bilbo Baggins gave at his birthday party in Fellowship of the Ring.
> 
> "I like half of you, half as well as I should like, and I like half of you half as well as you deserve."
> ...



I half get it.


----------



## Contra_Mundum (Jul 28, 2005)

Its a "speaker's phrase." For one thing Bilbo's not really splitting the audience into halves, his words are rhetorical. He says that the reason he doesn't like some of them _more_ isn't their fault, its his, either because he isn't charitable enough, or he isn't alert enough, or he's incapable because of some moral limitation. It's really quite clever, and endearing.


----------



## turmeric (Jul 28, 2005)

> _Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by Average Joey_
> ...



It's the sort of riddle a Halfling would make!


----------



## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 28, 2005)

> _Originally posted by turmeric_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot_
> ...


----------



## bnmhebda (Feb 17, 2006)

*a very old riddle*

W H A T "˜ S M Y N A M E 

God made Adam out of dust,
But thought it best to make me first;
So I was made before the man,
According to God´s holy plan.
My whole body God made complete,
Without arms or legs or feet.
My ways and acts God did control,
But in my body He placed no soul.
A living being I became,
And Adam gave to me a name.
Then from his presence I withdrew,
For this man Adam I never knew.

All my Maker´s laws I do obey,
And from these laws I never stray.
Thousands of me go in fear,
But seldom on the earth appear.
Later for a purpose God did see,
He placed a living soul in me.
But that soul of mine God had to claim,
And from me took it back again.
And when this soul from me had fled,
I was the same as when first made;
Without arms, legs, feet or soul,
I travel on from pole to pole.

My labors are from day to night,
And to men I once furnished light.
Thousands of people both young and old,
Did by my death bright lights behold.
No right or wrong I can conceive;
The Bible and its teachings I can´t believe.
The fear of death doesn´t trouble me;
Pure happiness I will never see.
And up in Heaven I can never go,
Nor in the grave or Hell below.
So get your Bible and read with care;
You´ll find my name recorded there.


(This puzzle was written by a lady in California in 1890 in response to a gentleman in Philadelphia who said that he would pay $1,000, a great sum at that time, to anyone who could write a puzzle he could not solve. He failed to do so and paid the lady $1,000.)


----------



## SolaScriptura (Feb 17, 2006)

> _Originally posted by bnmhebda_
> W H A T "˜ S M Y N A M E
> 
> God made Adam out of dust,
> ...



Whale.


----------



## satz (Feb 17, 2006)

Ben you ruined it for me ...


----------



## bigheavyq (Feb 26, 2006)

what is black when you buy it
red when you use it 
and grey when you throw it away


----------



## Semper Fidelis (Feb 26, 2006)

> _Originally posted by bigheavyq_
> what is black when you buy it
> red when you use it
> and grey when you throw it away


Charcoal.


----------



## Semper Fidelis (Feb 26, 2006)

I'm there in darkness, but not alight
Can be seen in daytime, but missing at night
I'm there in the shadows, but not in sight.


----------



## satz (Feb 27, 2006)

> _Originally posted by SemperFideles_
> I'm there in darkness, but not alight
> Can be seen in daytime, but missing at night
> I'm there in the shadows, but not in sight.



Is it the letter 'a'?


----------



## Semper Fidelis (Feb 27, 2006)

Good job Mark. Also the letter d.


----------



## Semper Fidelis (Feb 27, 2006)

Mom, Dad, and 2 kids have come to a river, and they find a boat. It is small and can only carry one adult or 2 kids at a time. Both kids are good rowers, but how can the whole family reach the other side of the river?


----------



## fivepointcalvinist (Apr 8, 2006)

i think this may work but its a long answer:

child 1 and 2 row across first
child 1 rows back to mom and dad
mom rows across
child 2 rows back to dad and child 1
child 1 and 2 row across
child 1 rows back to dad
dad rows across
child 2 rows back to child 1
child 1 and 2 row across to mom and dad

??


----------



## bigheavyq (Apr 9, 2006)

a man lives on the 50th floor in NYC. In the morning, he gets up and takes the elevator from the 50th floor to the 1st and goes to work. When he comes home, he takes the elevator to the 35th floor and climbs the last 15 floors. 

why?


----------



## srhoades (Apr 9, 2006)

> _Originally posted by bigheavyq_
> a man lives on the 50th floor in NYC. In the morning, he gets up and takes the elevator from the 50th floor to the 1st and goes to work. When he comes home, he takes the elevator to the 35th floor and climbs the last 15 floors.
> 
> why?



I think I remember this one although it is a little obscure. The man is a little person (for the politically corect) and can only reach the elevator button to the 35th floor. 
Although if he is that simple minded to not take something with him to push the higher button, I be curious to know how he got such a good paying job to afford an apartment in a NY skyrise apartment complex.

[Edited on 4-9-2006 by srhoades]


----------



## turmeric (Apr 9, 2006)

It's a HUD apartment!


----------



## Semper Fidelis (Apr 10, 2006)

> _Originally posted by fivepointcalvinist_
> i think this may work but its a long answer:
> 
> child 1 and 2 row across first
> ...


Good job!


----------



## bigheavyq (Apr 10, 2006)

yes its's a midget


----------



## fivepointcalvinist (Apr 10, 2006)

> _Originally posted by SemperFideles_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by fivepointcalvinist_
> ...


----------

