What is the best riddle you have ever heard?

Here's my favorite:

You have 3 boxes and each box contains 2 marbles. One box has 2 black marbles, one box has 2 white marbles, and one box has 1 white marble and 1 black marble.

The boxes are marked: WW for the 2 white marbles, BB for the 2 black marbles, and WB for the white/black marbles.

The only thing you know for sure is that the boxes are labeled incorrectly. You are allowed to reach into one box and pull out one marble. Can you identify from that one marble what is in each box?


Answer: Reach into the WB box and pull out a marble. If it is a black marble, then you know that box contains 2 black marbles. It can't contain a black marble and a white marble because then it would have been labeled correctly.

Therefore, the WW box can't contain 2 white marbles and it can't contain 2 black marbles so it contains the black and white marbles. And the BB box contains the 2 white marbles.

If you pull out a white marble from the W/B box, then that contains the 2 white marbles, so the BB box has to contain the black and white marbles and the WW box contains the 2 black marbles. Hope this makes sense.
 
Not best, but...

Three brothers share a family sport:
A non-stop marathon
The oldest one is fat and short
And trudges slowly on
The middle brother's tall and slim
And keeps a steady pace
The youngest runs just like the wind,
Speeding through the race
"He's young in years, we let him run,"
The other brothers say
"'Cause though he's surely number one,
He's second, in a way."

-----

'Twas whispered in Heaven, 'twas muttered in Hell,
And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;
On the confines of Earth, 'twas permitted to rest,
And in the depths of the ocean its presence confessed;
'Twill be found in the sphere when 'tis riven asunder,
Be seen in the lightning and heard in the thunder;
'Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath,
Attends him at birth and awaits him at death,
Presides o'er his happiness, honor and health,
Is the prop of his house and the end of his wealth.
In the heaps of the miser, 'tis hoarded with care,
But is sure to be lost on his prodigal heir;
It begins every hope, every wish it must bound;
With the husbandman toils, and with monarchs is crowned;
Without it the soldier and seaman may roam,
But woe to the wretch who expels it from home!
In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found,
Nor e'er in the whirlwind of passion be drowned;
'Twill soften the heart; but though deaf be the ear,
It will make him acutely and instantly hear.
Set in shade, let it rest like a delicate flower;
Ah! Breath on it softly, it dies in an hour.


I'll tell you after you guess.
 
Back
Top