Lateral Thinking Riddles

Lateral thinking puzzles involve solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious, thinking out of the box and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

Poisoned Apple

Lucretia Borgia invited a prospective victim to lunch. They ate a hearty meal of roast venison, with a selection of fresh vegetables, all washed down with the finest wine imported from Bordeaux in France.

After the meal they finished off with figs and grapes freshly picked.

“Just one apple left”, said Lucretia, “I insist you have that. “No”, said the guest, “I couldn’t”. “Tell you what”, said Lucretia, “we will share it”, and promptly sliced it neatly in two with her sharpest knife. The guest and Lucretia started to eat their respective halves when suddenly the guest’s eyes rolled towards the ceiling and he keeled over backwards stone dead.

“Another victim successfully despatched,” thought Lucretia.

Why was Lucretia not poisoned after eating the apple?

Riddle Answer

Tunnel Crossing

One family wants to get through a tunnel at night.

Dad can make it in 1 minute, mom in 2 minutes, son in 4 minutes and daughter in 5 minutes. Unfortunately, not more than two people can go through the narrow tunnel at one time, moving at the speed of the slower one.

They have only one torch and it only has enough light left for 12 minutes. The tunnel is too dangerous to cross without a torch.

How can they all cross the tunnel in 12 minutes?

Riddle Answer