Long Riddles

Long riddles with answers test your problem solving skills. These lengthy puzzles test your ability to piece together information and find the answer.

King Octopus and Servants

King Octopus has servants with six, seven, or eight legs. The servants with seven legs always lie, but the servants with either six or eight legs always say the truth.

One day, 4 servants met:
The blue one says: “Altogether we have 28 legs”;
The green one says: “Altogether we have 27 legs”;
The yellow one says: “Altogether we have 26 legs”;
The red one says: “Altogether we have 25 legs”.

What is the colour of the servant that is speaking the truth?

Riddle Answer

The Reclusive Inventor

There was once a reclusive inventor who became so annoyed with unwanted visitors ringing his doorbell that he decided to discourage them by inventing a new one.

The device consisted of a row of six push buttons mounted on the front door, wired in such a way that only one of the buttons would ring the bell. If an incorrect button was pressed (even simultaneously with the correct one) the bell would be temporarily deactivated.

Only his close friends were told the identity of the correct button. Everyone else had to deduce it from an inscription on the front door which read ‘Exactly one button is somewhere to the left of the one, that is three to the right of the one, that is somewhere to the right of the one, that is next to the one, that is two away from the one that is first mentioned. Ring the only button of the six that is not mentioned above.’

What was the position of the correct button?

Riddle Answer

Blind Bartender’s Problem

Four glasses are placed on the corners of a square Lazy Susan (turntable). Some of the glasses are upright (up) and some upside-down (down).

A blindfolded person is seated next to the Lazy Susan and is required to re-arrange the glasses so that they are all up or all down, either arrangement being acceptable.

The glasses may be re-arranged in turns subject to the following rules.

  1. Any two glasses may be inspected in one turn and after feeling their orientation the person may reverse the orientation of either, neither or both glasses.
  2. After each turn the Lazy Susan is rotated through a random angle.
  3. At any point of time if all four glasses are of the same orientation, a bell will ring.

Can you devise an algorithm which allows the blindfolded person to ensure that all glasses have the same orientation (either up or down) in a finite number of turns? The algorithm must not depend on luck.

Riddle Answer

Bank Robbery

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?

Riddle Answer