Long Riddles

Emperor Akbar once ruled over India. He was a wise and intelligent ruler, and he had in his court the Nine Gems, his nine advisors, who were each known for a particular skill. One of these Gems was Birbal, known for his wit and wisdom. The story below is one of the examples of his wit. Do you have it in you to find out the answer?

A farmer and his neighbour once went to Emperor Akbar’s court with a complaint.

“Your Majesty, I bought a well from him,” said the farmer pointing to his neighbour, “and now he wants me to pay for the water.”

“That’s right, your Majesty,” said the neighbour. “I sold him the well but not the water!” The Emperor asked Birbal to settle the dispute.

How did Birbal solve the dispute?

A bank is getting robbed and one of the robbers tells one of the tellers to give him all of the money. The teller tells him she doesn’t have access to it.

Suddenly the phone rings. The robber tells the teller to answer it and not give them away. She picks up the phone and it happens to be her mother. She tells her mother “Is this an emergency mom? Call me when I get home, I could use some help painting.” Then she hangs up.

The robbers continue to try to get into the vault but twenty minutes later the police show up with the tellers mom and arrest them all.

How did the police know about the robbery?

Once upon a time there was a kingdom. A king and a clown lived in this kingdom. Unfortunately they hated each other so they agreed that they will poison each other one day.

There are only twelve vials of poison in whole kingdom and they are locked in one chamber in the castle.

The poisons have numbers from 1 to 12. The higher the number the stronger the poison. The effect on the human body is simple – you drink the poison, you die. Each stronger poison neutralizes all weaker poisons which means that poison 12 neutralizes all poisons, poison 11 neutralizes all poisons except poison 12, etc. If you drink poison 11 followed by poison 12 nothing happens. If you drink poison 12 and then poison 11 you die.

The king enters the chamber first and takes all the even numbered poisons (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12). The clown then enters and takes the odd numbered poisons. They meet in the throne hall where each fills one cup and hands it over to the other who immediately drinks it. Now each fills the cup once again, now for himself, and drinks it (hoping to save his own life).

Both the king and the clown primarily want to survive but want to poison the other. There is one dose of each poison – it’s not possible to divide it. The poisons are fluids without color or smell and they have the same consistency as water.

The clown survived and the king died from the poison. What did the clown do?