One of the best ways to past time without losing anything is to play with some brain teaser questions. This has a way of stimulating one’s brain and also awaken it if it has been sleeping. It is called brain teaser because it actually teases the brain. They are not everyday questions that we come across, hence they are not that easy. They are unconventional questions that will require one to reason in an unconventional way to be able to answer it.
Brain teaser questions that will certainly tease your brain:
1. Q: Before Mt. Everest was discovered, which was the highest mountain in the world?
A: Mt. Everest. It just wasn’t discovered yet.
2. Q: If you were running a race and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?
A: Second place.
3. Q: What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, and has a bed but never sleeps?
A: A river.
4. Q: Imagine you are in a sinking rowboat surrounded by sharks. How would you survive?
A: Stop imagining.
5. Q: What is as big as you are and yet does not weigh anything?
A: Your shadow.
6. Q: Two cannibals were chatting as they had their dinner. One complained that he really quite disliked his new mother-in-law. What was the advice given to him by his companion?
A: So just finish your vegetables!
7. Q: Paul’s height is six feet, he’s an assistant at a butcher’s shop, and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh?
A: Meat.
8. Q: What’s black and white and red all over?
A: An embarrassed zebra.
9. Q: I can run but I can’t walk, a mouth but I can’t talk, a head but I can’t think, a bed but I can’t sleep. Who am I?
A: River.
10. Q: I’m where yesterday follows today, and tomorrow’s in the middle. What am I?
A: A dictionary.
11. Q: Eskimos are very good hunters, but they never hunt penguins. Why not?
A: Because Eskimos live at the north pole, and penguins live in the south pole.
12. Q: It goes in dry, it comes out wet, the longer it’s in the stronger it gets. What is it?
A: Tea-bag
13. Q: The peacock is a bird that does not lay eggs. How do they get baby peacocks?
A: The peahen lays eggs.
14. Q: Where do fish keep their money?
A: The River Bank
15. Q: Which is heavier a ton of gold or a ton of silver?
A: Both are equal. 1 ton = 1 ton
16. Q: What did one eye say to the other?
A: Between us something smells.
17. Q: What was the President’s name in 1975?
A: The same as it is today.
18. Q: There are 6 mangoes in a basket and 6 kids eagerly waiting to get one. Each kid is given 1 mango, yet there is one mango in the basket, how?
A: The last kid gets the basket with the mango in it.
19. Q: 2 fathers and 2 sons go fishing. Each of them catches one fish. So why do they bring home only 3 fish?
A: Because the fishing group comprises a grandfather, his son, and his grandson – hence, just three people.
20. Q: You can hold it without using your hands or arms. What is it?
A: Your breath.
21. Q: I stand when I’m sitting, and jump when I’m walking. Who am I?
A: A kangaroo.
22. Q: A certain five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it. What is the word?
A: Short.
23. Q: How long is the answer to this question.
A: How long. 😛
24. Q: How many seconds are there in a year?
A: Twelve. The Second of Jan, Feb, March…December.
25. Q: Is it legal for a man to marry his widow’s sister?
A: No. He is dead.
26. Q: Why is it against the law for a person living in New York to be buried in California?
A: He is alive
27. Q: What goes up but never comes down?
A: Your age.
28. Q: You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?
A: An ear of corn.
29. Q: What travels around the world but stays in one spot?
A: A stamp!
30. Q: What do the letter ‘t’ and an island have in common?
A: Both are in water – WaTer.
31. Q: I go all around the world but I still stay in a corner. Who am I?
A: A postage stamp.
32. Q: Which month has 28 days?
A: All
33. Q: What is in the middle of CHINA?
A: The letter ‘I’.
34. Q: What clothes did Delaware?
A: Don’t know. Alaska! (I’ll ask her).
35. Q: When you have me, you feel like sharing me. But, if you do share me, you don’t have me. What am I?
A: A secret.
36. Q: A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and rode out again on Friday. How did he do that?
A: His horse’s name is Friday.
37. Q: The person who makes it has no need for it. The person who purchases it does not use it. The person who does use it does not know he or she is. What is it?
A: A coffin.
38. Q: It is an insect, and the first part of its name is the name of another insect. What is it?
A: Beetle.
39. Q: Divide 50 by half and add 20.
A: 120
40. Q: 20 pigeons sat on the branches of a tree. A man shot 1 pigeon with his gun. How many were left on the tree?
A: None. The rest flew away.
41. Q: If an electric train is traveling south, which way is the smoke going?
A: There is no smoke, it’s an electric train!
42. Q: What’s black when you get it, red when you use it, and white when you’re all through with it?
A: Charcoal.
43. Q: Heavy it is but reverse it’s not?
A: TON
44. Q: When was it that Christmas and New Year were celebrated in the same year?
A: Every year.
45. Q: How many time can you subtract 10 from 100?
A: Once. Next time you would be subtracting 10 from 90.
46. Q: Adam’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name?
A: Adam.
47. Q: A clerk at a butcher shop stands five-feet ten-inches tall and wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?
A: Meat.
48. Q: What types of words are these: madam, civic, eye, level?
A: They are palindromes; they read the same both ways.
49. Q: What ends everything always?
A: The alphabet ‘g’.
50. Q: Feed me and I live, give me drink and I die. What am I?
A: Fire. If you keep adding fuel (feeding it) to the fire, it will keep burning. However, a little water will extinguish or kill it.
51. Q: What are the next two letters in this series? J F M A M J J A S O
A: N and D. These are initials of the months in a year.
52. Q: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
A: The egg, since dinosaurs laid eggs long before there were chickens.
53. Q: Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on Earth?
A: Mount Everest, of course! Irrespective of the discovery, Mount Everest remains the highest peak in the world.
54. Q: While some months have just 30 days, others have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
A: Every month has 28 days.
55. Q: What are two things you cannot have for breakfast?
A: Lunch and dinner! One can only eat breakfast as an early morning meal; the rest would be called lunch and dinner. So, technically, one cannot have lunch or dinner for breakfast.
56. Q: What is broken every time it’s spoken?
A: Silence. We often use the phrase ‘to break a silence’ when me mean there is noise or sound. Thus, every time someone speaks, we figuratively break the silence.
57. Q: If I give you a group of three, one who is sitting down and will never get up. The second, who eats as much as is given to him, yet is always hungry. The third, who goes away and never returns. What are we?
A: Stove, fire, smoke. Here ‘stove’ represents the one who is always sitting, ‘fire’ which eats or consumes everything and is yet hungry for more, and finally ‘smoke’ which gets flown away with air, only never to return.
58. Q: What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
A: The letter M. The riddle questions the number of times the letter ‘m’ appears in the words, ‘minute’, ‘moment’, and ‘years’.
59. Q: What has a mouth but can’t chew?
A: River. It has a mouth, but it definitely cannot chew anything!
60. Q: What is as big as an elephant but weighs nothing at all?
A: An elephant’s shadow!
61. Q: I go through towns and hills but I never move. Who am I?
A: Road. A road goes through most of the places, but never itself moves.
62. Q: The more you take, the more you leave behind.
A: Footsteps. The more you walk, the more traces you leave behind.
63. Q: What did the fish say when he ran into a concrete wall?
A: Damn! The poor fish banged into the wall.
64. Q: What starts with a T, ends with a T, and has T in it?
A: Teapot.
65. Q: What English word retains the same pronunciation, even after you take away four of its five letters?
A: Queue. When we remove ‘ueue’ from the word ‘Queue’, it still retains the sound of the letter ‘Q’, which is same as the word ‘Queue’.
66. Q: If there are three cups of sugar and you take one away, how many do you have?
A: One, as that is the only one you took away and that is all that you have. The rest still remain where there were.
67. Q: How many letters are in the alphabet?
A: We meant the word ‘alphabet’ and not the series of alphabets. So, the right answer is 8.
68. Q: Take away the whole and some still remains. What is it?
A: The word ‘wholesome.’ If you remove the ‘whole’ or the first part of the word, ‘some’ will still remain as an independent word.
69. Q: How do you double your money in the easiest and fastest way?
A: Place it in front of the mirror! The reflection will make it look like there is twice as much as actual money.
70. Q: Who has four eyes but can never see?
A: Mississippi. It has four ‘I’s in its spelling, but still it cannot see as it does not have an eye. This riddle is more about the homophones I and eye.
71. Q: Who has hands but cannot clap?
A: Clock!
72. Q: How could a cowboy ride into town on Friday, stay two days, and ride out on Friday?
A: His horse is named Friday!
73. Q: When can you add two to eleven and get one as the correct answer?
A: When you add two hours to eleven you get one, because we say it is 1 ‘o’ clock and not 13 ‘o’ clock.
74. Q: You saw me where I never was and where I could not be. And yet within that very place, my face you often see. What am I?
A: A reflection. You saw yourself in a mirror, where you could never be.
75. Q: Forward I’m heavy, but backwards I’m not. What am I?
A: Ton. If you spell ‘ton’ backwards, it would spell ‘not’.
76. Q: What question can you never honestly answer yes to?
A: Are you asleep?’ How can you answer this with yes or with honesty, if you are actually asleep?
77. Q: A man is born in 1946 and dies in 1947, yet he was 86 years old. How is that possible?
A: He was born in room no.1946 and died in room no.1947, 86 years later.
78. Q: What English word has three consecutive double letters?
A: Bookkeeper. The letters ‘oo’, ‘kk’, and ‘ee’ appear consecutively and doubly in the word ‘bookkeeper’.
79. Q: What is it that you cannot hold even for ten minutes, even though it is lighter than a feather?
A: Your breath
80. Q: There are 6 mangoes in a basket and 6 kids eagerly waiting to get one. Each kid is given 1 mango, yet there is one mango in the basket. How?
A: The last kid gets the basket with the mango in it.
81. Q: What becomes white when it is dirty?
A: A blackboard
82. Q: A: What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Short
83. Q: How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
A: You can drop it any which way you want. Concrete floor is too hard to crack due to an egg falling on it.
84. Q: Two mothers and two daughters go to a pet store and buy three cats. Each female gets her own cat. How is this possible?
A: It is possible if they are grandmother, mother, and daughter.
85. Q: In Okmulgee, Oklahoma, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why?
A: Because you need a camera to take pictures, not a wooden leg.
86. Q: There are 3 stoves; a glass stove, brick stove, and wood stove. You only have 1 match. Which would you light first?
A: You will have to light the matchstick first
87. Q: A doctor and a nurse have a baby boy. The boy’s father is not the doctor and the mother is not the nurse. How is it possible?
A: The doctor is the mother (female doctor) and the nurse is the father (male nurse).
88. Q: What can you hold without ever touching it, or without using your hands?
A: Your breath
89. Q: What word of five letters has only one left when two letters are removed?
A: Stone
90. Q: How far can a dog run into the woods?
A: Halfway through (after which the dog would be running out of the woods, not into the woods.)
91. Q: How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
A: The lifting part is nevertheless easy, the problem is to find an elephant with one hand.
92. Q: If you drop a yellow hat in the Red Sea what will it become?
A: Wet
93. Q: What is the question you can ask all day, get different answers for the same, and they would still be correct?
A: What’s the time?
