In another puzzle, a man must repair a clock stuck high up without being able to touch it. He only has a mirror in his pocket.
Most people look for a mechanical solution. Yet, the solution is mental. Using the mirror, he reads the time backwards, calculates the difference, then waits for the actual time to match the one displayed by the stuck clock.
So he didn’t fix the clock… he simply used time to his advantage. Clever, isn’t it?
The crossroads of truth and lies
Here’s an even more perplexing riddle: a young girl arrives at a crossroads with two paths, one safe, the other dangerous. Each path has a stone: one indicates “Truth,” the other “Lie.” But it’s impossible to know which one is true.
Solution
We expect a complicated logical argument, but the girl does something very simple: she ignores the stones and observes the ground. She chooses the most frequented path.
Moral of the story: when information is contradictory, it is sometimes better to observe reality rather than listen to indications.
The mystery of the missing umbrella
A man places his umbrella near a bench; no one approaches, and yet the umbrella disappears. One immediately imagines a thief, a hidden camera, a magic trick…
Solution
