"Each puzzle is set up with the 'situation' given as regular text. Try to work it out, and when you can't, both a set of clues and the solution are given directly below each puzzle. Both the clues and the solution are printed in the same colour as the background, and can be viewed (successively) by highlighting the text with your mouse... "

Clues: The man does NOT like the exercise. A rainy day provides an accessory which allows him to use the elevator the whole way...

Solution: The man is extremely short, so on any ordinary day he cannot reach further than the button for floor #10 in the elevator. When it rains, he can use his umbrella to reach the elevator button #20...

2. A woman is dead on an island and there is nothing else on the island with her. How did she die?

Clues: The island is not an ordinary island. There is NOTHING on the island with her...

Solution: The island is a traffic island, and the woman was hit by a car...

3. A man is hanging from a rope in a locked room. Below him is a puddle of water. How did he hang himself?

Clues: There is no furniture. When he hung himself, the puddle was not there...

Solution: The puddle is all that is left of a large block of ice. The man stood on this in order to hang himself...

4. A man is dead in a desert with a rock lying beside him. There are no footprints leading to or away from him, nor have any been covered over. How did he die?

Clues: The man is not an ordinary man, and neither is the rock. The rock has particular significance for this particular man...

Solution: The man is Superman, and the rock is kryptonite...

5. A man wakes up one morning, looks out of his window, and knows that he has caused the deaths of hundreds of people. How does he know?

Clues: The man lives in an isolated place, and the people depended on him doing his job for their safety. He did not know the people...

Solution: The man is a lighthouse keeper who forgot to turn the light on the previous evening. He sees the ships that have been shipwrecked during the night...

6. A man is driving to work. He turns on the radio and knows that he will be going to prison. How does he know?

Clues: The man works at the radio station. He has committed an illegal act just prior to setting out for work...

Solution: The man is a DJ at the radio station. He had left a CD playing at the station and gone to kill his wife's lover, thinking he would have work as an alibi. However, after he kills the man and is then heading back to work, he hears the CD skipping on the radio...

7. Two men went into a restaurant. They both ordered the same dish from the menu. After tasting it, one of the men knew that he had eaten his friend. How did he know?

Clues: They ordered albatross soup. The man's friend was a human...

Solution: The men had been shipwrecked on an island with some other people many years earlier. At that time, they had been given some soup and told that it was albatross soup. It was, in fact, cooked from the meat of a human friend who had "disappeared" earlier. The two soups had different tastes...

8. A man is dead in a telephone box. The phone is off the hook and there are two holes in the glass walls. There is a small box in the phone booth with him. How did he die?

Clues: There is nothing sinister about the box. He was on the phone prior to dying. The holes are on opposite sides of the booth, at the same height, and of the same size. The holes have jagged edges...

Solution: The box is a fishing tackle box. The man was talking to a friend on the phone about the fishing trip he'd just had, and was describing "the one that got away". He said, "It was this big!", and in doing so, he punched the glass walls on either side - effectively slitting his wrists...

9. A man's car breaks down in the country and he goes to a nearby farmhouse to make a phonecall for help. As soon as the farmer shows the man the room where the phone is, the man making the call realises that he won't make it out of the house alive. How does he know?

Clues: There is something behind the room's door which gives it away (a clothing item). The man does not need to use the telephone to know his death is imminent...

Solution: The man making the phonecall is dark-skinned, and as the door closes he notices the hood and cloak belonging to a member of the Ku Klux Clan hanging on a hook behind the door...

10. A man pushes his car up to a hotel and immediately knows that he will have to pay hundreds of dollars. How does he know?

Clues: The car is not an ordinary car, and neither is the hotel. The car is VERY small...

Solution: He is playing a game of "Monopoly", and has just moved his "car" up to a property with a "hotel" on it...

11. Antony and Cleopatra are lying dead on the floor of an Egyptian villa. Their bodies are unmarked and they have not been poisoned. There is a broken bowl lying nearby. How did they die?

Clues: Antony and Cleopatra are NOT human. The bowl is VERY significant...

Solution: Antony and Cleopatra are goldfish. Their bowl was knocked off its stand by the household dog brushing against the stand...

12. Two Americans are standing at the entrance to a British Museum, and are about to enter. One of them is the father of the other's son. How is this possible?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: They are husband and wife...

13. In the middle of a green field lie two pieces of coal, a carrot, and a scarf. When they are discovered by the local boys they are not at all surprised at finding such unusual items in such a place. Nobody specifically placed them there, so how did they get there?

Clues: The items were a part of a whole entity which no longer exists. They did not fall from the sky. The "entity" was constructed by the boys...

Solution: They are (respectively) the eyes, nose, and scarf of a snowman the boys had made. The snow has melted, leaving only these items in the middle of the field...

14. A bomber is flying a bombing strike against an enemy position in World War II. When they reach the target, the bombadier orders the bomb doors open. They are opened. The bombadier then gives the order for the bombs to be released. They are released. However, the bombs do not hit the ground. How is this possible?

Clues: The bombs are not fixed to the inside of the plane. The bombs do not leave the plane. The men in the plane do NOT expect the bombs to fall...

Solution: The bomber is flying upside-down...

15. Whilst hiking in the mountains, a woman discovers a locked cabin with three people dead inside. How did they die?

Clues: It snowed the night before. The cabin is NOT an ordinary "cabin" - for a start, it is constructed of metal...

Solution: The cabin is a plane's cockpit. The people are the flying crew, whose plane had crashed during the snowstorm the night before...

16. A man walks into his home, does not see sawdust, and screams in anguish. Why does he do this?

Clues: The man's home is not a house. He works in a circus. He wanted to see sawdust, but he did not really expect to see it. There has NEVER been sawdust in his home at any previous time...

Solution: The man is a midget who bills himself as the shortest man in the world, and "performs" in a travelling circus. His home is a caravan. A jealous rival has surreptitiously sawn the legs of his funiture off so that by comparison he appears taller. The effect of this is that the man mistakenly believes that he is growing. The lack of sawdust demonstrates to the man that his furniture has not been shortened...

17. A man walked into a bar and asked the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulled out a gun and pointed it at the man. The man said, "Thank you," and walked out. Explain.

Clues: The man and the barman did now know one another. He did not need the water anymore...

Solution: The man had hiccups. The barman recognised this from his speech and drew the gun in order to give him a shock. It cured the hiccups, so the man no longer needed the water...

18. A man is lying dead in a field. He has a backpack on and a ring in his hand. How did he die?

Clues: The backpack is VERY significant. Think 3D...

Solution: The man had jumped from a plane, but his parachute had failed to open. The backpack is the parachute, and the ring is the pull for the ripcord...

19. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How can this be?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: They were two of a set of triplets...

20. A certain doctor paid a tramp a large sum of money in order to amputate the tramp's arm. He then sent the arm via the post to another man. This man then examined the arm, repacked it, and sent it on to another man. The second man also carefully examined the arm before taking it to the forest and burying it. Why did they do this?

Clues: The three men had spent some time together in the past. The other two men were each missing one arm...

Solution: The three men had been stranded on a desert island. Desperate for food, they had agreed to amputate their left arms in order to eat them. They swore an oath that each would have his left arm cut off. One of them was a doctor and he cut the arms off his two companions. They were then rescued. But his oath was still binding. In order to escape with both arms still intact, he amputated the tramp's arm and sent it on to the other men...

21. A man died and went to Heaven. There were millions of other people there. They were all naked and all looked as they did at the age of 21. He looked around to see if there was anyone he recognised. He saw a couple and he knew immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he know?

Clues: Supposedly, Adam and Eve were "made"...

Solution: He recognised Adam and Eve as the only people without navels. Because they were not born, they had never had umbilical cords, and therefore they did not have navels...

22. A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and then left on Friday. How is this possible?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: The man's horse was called Friday...

23. A large, heavyset man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die?

Clues: The punch contained the poison. Nothing was added to the punch after the man left. However, the punch did change slightly...

Solution: The poison in the punch came from the ice cubes. When the man drank the punch the ice was fully frozen. Gradually it melted, poisoning the punch...

24. A man was walking downstairs in a building when he suddenly realised that his wife had just died. How?

Clues: The time has nothing to with it. The lights in the stairwell blacked out for a couple of minutes...

Solution: The man had visited his wife in hospital. She was on a life-support machine. As he was walking down the stairs all the lights went out. There had been a power shortage and the emergency back-up systems had failed. He knew that she had died...

25. A blind beggar had a brother who died. What relation was the blind beggar to the brother who died? (Brother is not the answer).

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: The blind beggar was the sister of her brother who died...

26. A naked man is found dead in a field. He is clutching a broken match. What happened?

Clues: The fact that he is naked has some minor significance. The match IS important. Think 3D...

Solution: He and a number of other passengers were making a balloon trip in a desperate attempt to flee a country. The balloon had to lose weight to stop it from crashing. After throwing all possible ballast out (including their clothes) they decided someone had to jump out. To do this, they drew straws (in this case matches), whereupon he drew the short match...

27. The music stopped. She died. Explain.

Clues: The music had stopped many times in the past and she had not died. She was doing something VERY dangerous. She did not know she would die until it was academic...

Solution: She was a circus tight-rope walker whose act was to walk blindfolded over a high wire without a net. The band played as she crossed, and when the music stopped it was the signal that she had reached the end of the walk and could safely alight. One day the conductor was taken ill and the stand-in conductor ended the piece of music too early. She stepped off, to her death...

28. Deep in a forest the body of a man wearing only swimming trunks, snorkel and facemask was found. The nearest lake was 8 kilometres away and the sea was over 50 kilometres away. How had he died?

Clues: He was swimming in the lake before he died. He died on the ground where he was found...

Solution: During a forest fire, a fire-fighting plane had scooped up some water from the lake to drop on the fire. The plane had accidentally picked up the unfortunate swimmer. Apparently, this is a true story...

29. One day Kelly celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Anthony, celebrated his birthday. How come?

Clues: Think about calendar and time-zone anomalies...

Solution: At the time she went into labour, the mother of the twins was travelling by boat. The older twin, Anthony, was born early on March 1st. The boat then crossed the International Date line and Kelly, the younger twin, was born on February the 28th. In a leap year the younger twin celebrates her birthday two days before her older brother...

30. Cindy's parents told her to never open the basement door. One day, while they were out, she could resist no longer. When she opened the door, she was shocked and surprised by what she saw. What did she see?

Clues: Most people would not be shocked. Something unusual WAS kept in the basement, but this was not what she saw...

Solution: A hallway, living room and dining room. Maybe even the outside for the first time. Cindy was the unusual "thing" in the basement...

31. The husband and wife raced through the streets of Melbourne. Then the husband got out of the car and asked his wife to wait a couple minutes for him. When he returned she was dead. Not only that, a stranger was in the car. How did she die?

Clues: The doors and windows of the car were locked the whole time while the husband was away. The death was caused by the stranger, but not intentionally...

Solution: The stranger was their new born baby. The expectant couple were headed for the hospital. When they arrived, the husband ran off to get a wheelchair. Unfortunately, the child couldn't wait and the mother didn't survive the birth...

32. A hunter aimed his gun carefully, and pulled the trigger. Seconds later he realised his mistake. Minutes later he was dead. What happened?

Clues: No living creature killed him. It was a cold winter's day. He had a VERY loud gun...

Solution: The hunter was near a snowy cliff. When he fired the gun, he "triggered" an avalanche which buried him...

33. A heavyset man who works in the butcher's shop is 6' 2" tall. What does he weigh?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: The heavyset man weighs meat...

34. Two grandmasters played five chess games each but both of them won three games. How is this possible?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: The grandmasters didn't have five games against each other, just 5 games each...

35. A man hails a taxi, gets in and gives the driver the destination address. The taxi sets out, but then the driver stops in a secluded place and the driver kills the man. Why?

Clues: The men do not know each other. The address initiates the man's death...

Solution: The taxi driver has suspicions that someone is having an affair with his wife while he works. The man asks to be taken to the driver's home address, where the wife is alone at home...

36. There is a man dead in a locked office, sitting at his desk. On the desk there are a couple of pieces of blank paper, a pen and a sealed envelope. How was he killed?

Clues: The office is locked from the inside - no-one has directly killed him. He was poisoned...

Solution: The seal on the envelope was poisoned, so when he licked and sealed it, he was poisoned...

37. Joe wants to go home, but he can't because a man wearing a mask is waiting for him. What is the problem?

Clues: The masked man does not want to harm Joe. Home is not Joe's house...

Solution: A baseball game is going on. The base-runner sees the catcher waiting at home plate with the ball, and so decides to stay at third base to avoid being tagged out...

38. There is a prison built on an island in the middle of a huge lake. One morning, the warden wakes up his deputy to tell him that one of the inmates has escaped, and all he had done was tie two pieces of string together. However, prison records show that the inmate was unable to swim. How did he escape?

Clues: It is winter. The pieces of string were very small, and they are a VERY common clothing item...

Solution: The lake had frozen over, and the two pieces of string were the laces on his ice skates...

39. A man dressed entirely in black and wearing a black mask, is standing in the middle of a crossroad. All of the streetlights at the intersection are broken. A car speeds down the road, heading straight for the man, yet it turns in time and doesn't hit him. How does it manage to miss him?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: It's daytime...

40. A man sitting on a park bench reads a newspaper article headlined "Death At Sea" and knows that a murder was committed. How does he know?

Clues: The man vaguely knew the person who was killed. The person died on an international cruise, and was a woman...

Solution: The man is a travel agent. He had sold someone two tickets for an ocean voyage, one ticket round-trip and one ticket one-way. The surname of the woman who "fell" overboard and drowned on the voyage (as reported in the newspaper) is the same surname as that of the man who bought the tickets...

Clues: There is nothing unusual about the ship. There are twenty crew-members aboard...

Solution: There are more than ten sailors like Jim on his ship and he wishes he had less...

42. A woman lies dead in her bed. She has no bruises, markings, or signs of a scuffle. Next to the woman are a pair of scissors. How was she killed?

Clues: The bed is an unusual bed. The scissors were not used on her in any way...

Solution: She's lying on a water bed. The killer punctured the water bed with the scissors and then drowned the woman...

43. A man sees a bear. He walks one mile due South, one mile due East, and then one mile due North (returning to his starting place). What colour was the bear?

Clues: Think about geographical anomalies...

Solution: White. The only place you could walk one mile due South, one mile due East and one mile due North and ends up exactly where you started is at the North Pole...

44. It is a dark and stormy night. A man comes home to find his cat curled up in front of a cozy fire, dead. How did the cat die?

Clues: The cat has not been touched by anyone, nor has it been burned. There is a collar around its neck...

Solution: The cat had been outside in the storm and had been thoroughly soaked. He had come inside to warm himself by the fire. The cat was wearing a leather collar, and as the collar dried, it shrank, strangling the cat...

45. A woman is lying dead on the road. There is broken glass, ice and a crushed lemon nearby. What happened?

Clues: The "lemon" is not an ordinary lemon. Nothing has hit her...

Solution: Her car (the lemon) skidded on the ice and hit a tree. As a result the car was crushed and she was projected through the windscreen...

46. In the middle of the ocean is a yacht. Several dead bodies are floating in the water nearby. What has happened?

Clues: The people willingly and eagerly entered the water. They have drowned...

Solution: Some people were on an ocean voyage in a yacht. One afternoon they all decide to go swimming, so they dove off the side into the water. Unfortunately, they forgot to place a ladder on the side of the boat. Since there's no way for them to climb back aboard, they drown...

47. A man is lying dead in a room. The floor has many valuable treasures scattered over it, and a chandelier is on the ceiling. There is a large, shattered window nearby. How did the man die?

Clues: The man is wearing some unusual clothing. He entered the room through the window...

Solution: The room is the ballroom of an ocean liner which sank some time ago. The man ran out of air while diving in the wreck...

48. A woman arrived home after shopping with her bag of groceries, got the mail, and walked into the house. On her way to the kitchen, she walked through the living room and looked at her husband, who had blown his brains out. She then continued into the kitchen, put away the groceries, and cooked her dinner. Explain.

Clues: Her husband has been dead for a LONG time...

Solution: Her husband had killed himself a few years ago, and it is the urn on the mantelpiece containing his ashes that the wife looks at...

49. A body is discovered in a park in Chicago in the middle of summer. It has a fractured skull and many other broken bones, but the cause of death was hypothermia. Why?

Clues: The man has been dead for less than a day. When he entered the park he was already dead...

Solution: A refugee from eastern Europe desperately wants to get to the US. Not having enough money for the airfare, he stowed away in the landing gear compartment of an airliner. He died of hypothermia mid-flight, and fell out when the landing gear opened as the plane made its final approach...

50. A woman gives undeniable evidence in court that her husband was murdered by her sister. However, the judge determines that her sister cannot be punished. Why?

Clues: She is VERY close to her sister. This would be a very interesting court case...

Solution: The sisters are Siamese twins...

51. A man is driving his car to work. He turns on the radio and listens for a few minutes, before returning home, and killing his wife. Why?

Clues: He hears his wife on the radio. However, nothing she says annoys him to the point of killing her...

Solution: The radio program is one where the DJ calls a listener and asks them a question for a prize. They announce the name of the listener they are calling - it is the man's wife, yet another man (her lover) answers the phone before she takes the phone...

52. The music stopped and Charlie was immediately crushed to death. Explain.

Clues: Charlie is NOT human. It is a Sunday...

Solution: Charlie was an insect sitting on a pew in a church service. When the music stopped everyone sat down, and Charlie was squashed...

53. A woman sees her husband leaving a certain establishment and immediately insists on dissolving their partnership. What is going on?

Clues: The establishment deals in a particular branch of medicine. She remains happily married to him for many years to come...

Solution: Her husband is a knife-thrower in a circus act, and she is the "target" in the act. She sees him leaving an optometry clinic, and decides that if he's having trouble with his eyes she doesn't want him throwing knives at her...

54. A man is sitting in bed. He makes a phonecall, says nothing, and then goes to sleep. What was the point of the call?

Clues: He does not know the person he calls. He wakes the other person up...

Solution: He is in a hotel, and is unable to sleep because the man in the adjacent room is snoring. He calls the room next door, where the snorer wakes up and answers the phone. The first man hangs up without saying anything and goes to sleep before the snorer can get back to sleep and start snoring again...

55. A man dies of thirst in his own home. How is this so?

Clues: His home is NOT a house (but it is a home). No-one had turned the water off, and he was capable of turning the taps on in his home...

Solution: His home is a houseboat and he has run out of water while on an extended cruise...

56. Three men are dead. On the footpath are pieces of ice and some broken glass. How did they die?

Clues: There is also a refrigerator on the footpath. Two of the dead men are on the footpath, and the other is in the apartment building beside the footpath...

Solution: A strong man comes home to the penthouse apartment he shares with his beautiful young wife, taking the elevator up from the ground floor. He sees signs of lovemaking in the bedroom, and assumes that his wife is having an affair and that her beau has just escaped down the stairs. The husband looks out of a large floor-to-ceiling window and sees a good-looking man leave the main entrance of the building. The husband then pushes the refrigerator out through the window onto the young man below. The husband dies of a heart attack from overexertion; the young man below dies when the refrigerator falls on him; and the wife's boyfriend, who was hiding inside the refrigerator, naturally dies from the fall...

57. A man is running along a corridor with a piece of paper in his hand. The lights flicker, at which point the man drops to his knees and cries out, "Oh no!" What has gone wrong?

Clues: The corridor is in a prison. The flickering of the light is due to a power surge...

Solution: The man is delivering a pardon in a death row prison, and the flicker of the lights indicates that the person to be pardoned has just been electrocuted...

58. When going around a corner on Roberts Street, motorcycle riders travel at the same speed on both sunny and rainy days. However, if it's cloudy but not raining, they usually go faster. Why?

Clues: Traction is the key factor. The business on the corner contributes to the behaviour described...

Solution: There is a car wash on the corner. On rainy days, the rain reduces traction. On sunny days, water from the car wash has the same effect. However, if rain is threatening the car wash gets little business, and so the the road doesn't get wet, allowing for a faster speed...

59. A woman throws an object out of the window and dies. How does she die?

Clues: She dies of a broken neck. The nature of the object is VERY important...

Solution: The object she throws is a boomerang. It flies out, loops around, and comes back and hits her in the head, killing her. Boomerangs do not often return so close to the point from which they were thrown, but it is possible...

60. An avid birdwatcher sees an unexpected bird. Soon he's dead. How does he die?

Clues: He is not birdwatching at the time. The bird does not directly kill him - in fact, the bird itself died in the process...

Solution: He is a passenger in an airplane, and he sees the bird getting sucked into one of the engines while at high altitude...

61. An ordinary Australian citizen, with no passport, visits over thirty foreign countries in one day. He is welcomed in each country, and leaves each one of his own accord. How is this possible?

Clues: He does not leave the country in any usual sense. His job involves courier work...

Solution: He is a mail courier who delivers packages to the different foreign embassies in Canberra. The land of an embassy belongs to the country of the embassy, not to Australia...

62. Two children find a strange dead man on the floor in the living room. They stare at him in shock and cry bitterly. How did he die?

Clues: The children did not know the man, but they knew who he was. There is a fireplace in the living room...

Solution: The dead man was Santa Claus. He slipped while coming down the chimney and broke his neck...

63. A man tries the new cologne his wife gave him for his birthday. He goes out to get some food, and is killed. Why?

Clues: His job is to collect a certain kind of food. The new cologne changes his scent quite noticeably...

Solution: The man is a beekeeper, and the bees attack him en-masse because they don't recognise his fragrance. This has actually been known to happen...

64. A man in uniform stands on the beach of a tropical island. He takes out a cigarette, lights it, and begins smoking. He then opens a letter and begins reading it. The cigarette burns down between his fingers, but he doesn't throw it away. He then cries. Why?

Clues: He cries because of the letter's contents. He does not feel the cigarette burning his fingers...

Solution: He is an attendant at a leper colony. The letter informs him that he has contracted the disease, and he cries as a result. Because he has contracted leprosy, he cannot feel the burning sensation the cigarette is causing...

65. A married couple goes to a movie. During the movie the husband strangles the wife. He is then able to get her body home without attracting attention. How?

Clues: There are many other people at the same theatre seeing the same movie. The husband is not accosted at any time...

Solution: The movie is at a drive-in theatre...

66. A man ran into a fire, and lived. Another man stayed where there was no fire, and died. Why was this so?

Clues: The man who ran into the fire was burned. The man who did not was not burned at all - he died of asphyxiation (though not due to the smoke)...

Solution: The two men were working in a small room protected by a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher system, when a fire broke out in an adjoining room. One of the men ran through the fire and escaped with only minor burns. The other one stayed in the room until the fire extinguishers started, and died due to a lack of oxygen...

67. A writer with an audience of millions insisted that he was never to be interrupted while writing. After the day when he actually was interrupted, he never wrote again. Why?

Clues: He wrote using an unusual medium. He died as a result of the interruption...

Solution: He was a skywriter whose plane crashed into another plane...

68. Tracy died in North Queensland, while Craig died at sea. Everyone was much happier with Craig's death. Why?

Clues: Tracy and Craig are not living creatures...

Solution: Tracy and Craig were cyclones...

69. A poor man is travelling from Switzerland to his home in France by train. If he had been in a non-smoking car he would have died. Why?

Clues: The train is not damaged in any way. His death would have been a suicide. He has only recently become poor...

Solution: The man used to be blind. He has just had an expensive eye operation to restore his sight, and his eyes are bandaged. He has been told not to remove the bandage for 3 days, but unable to resist he takes a peek. The train (which has no internal lighting) goes through a tunnel just as he peeks through the bandage, and he almost kills himself thinking the operation was a failure. Fortunately, the glow of the lit cigarettes people are smoking convinces him that he can see...

70. A man leaves a motel room in the middle of the night, goes to his car, and honks the horn repeatedly. He then walks back to his room. Explain.

Clues: His wife is asleep in their motel room. He has forgotten where their room is. At no point does she wake up...

Solution: The man goes outside to get something from his car, but as the parking lot is set apart from the building, he forgets which room he was in. His wife is deaf, so he honks the car horn loudly, waking up everyone else in the motel. The other residents all get up and turn on their room lights, at which point the man then returns to the one dark room...

71. A line of adults are holding children in a queue. The children are handed over to a man one at a time, who holds them while a woman shoots them. If the child is crying, the man tries to cheer them up before they are shot. Why?

Clues: The children are not shot in any usual sense. In fact, most of them (and the adults with them) want them to be shot...

Solution: The children are getting their photographs taken with Santa...

72. A man marries twenty women in his town, but isn't charged with polygamy. Why?

Clues: He is not a Mormon. He does not have a wife...

Solution: He's a priest - he is marrying them to other people, not to himself...

73. A man working hard at doing his job when his suit tears. Fifteen minutes later, he's dead. How does he die?

Clues: His suit is a VERY specialised suit. He wears the suit only on his most dangerous assignments...

Solution: The man is an astronaut on a space walk...

74. A man lies dead. Nearby are a pile of bricks, and a beetle on top of a book. How did he die?

Clues: The "beetle" is not really a beetle. He has been crushed to death...

Solution: The man was an amateur mechanic, and the book is a Volkswagen service manual. The "beetle" is a Volkswagen car, and the pile of bricks were being used to hold the car up. Unfortunately, the car rolled off the bricks and crushed him...

75. A man is found dead in the arctic with a pack on his back. How did he die?

Clues: The pack actually killed him - it's not an ordinary pack...

Solution: It's a wolf pack - they've killed (and eaten) most of the man...

76. A horse jumps over a tower and lands on a man, who disappears. Explain.

Clues: The tower and the horse are about the same size. The man is about half as tall as the tower...

Solution: It's a chess game. The move is "knight takes pawn"...

77. Three large people are crowding together under one small umbrella, yet nobody gets wet. How is this possible?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: It isn't raining...

78. A woman comes home and sees Spaghetti on the wall. She then kills her husband. Why?

Clues: Spaghetti is not a style of pasta...

Solution: Spaghetti was the name of her dog. Her husband had it stuffed and mounted, and she retaliated...

79. A man is born in 1972 and dies in 1952 at the age of 25. Explain.

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: He was born in room number 1972 of a hospital, and dies in room number 1952...

80. A man jumps off a high building. On the way down his expression changes. Why?

Clues: He was calmly resolved when he jumped off the building. Something he heard changed everything...

Solution: His expression changed from calm resolve to despair. There had been a nuclear war and the man thought that he was the last person left alive in the world. He jumped off to kill himself and was quite okay until half way down the building, when he hears a telephone ringing...

Clues: He is NOT asking for four, ten, or two hundred items. Sixteen thousand and fifty-nine would cost $15..

Solution: The man was buying house numbers - each digit costs $3...

82. A man walks into his apartment and find his wife hanging from a rope tied to the ceiling fan. Under her, a chair is lying on its side. He is so upset with her suicide that he kicks the chair. He immediately knows that she was murdered. How does he know?

Clues: The chair has EVERYTHING to do with it...

Solution: When he kicked the chair, it righted itself, and the he saw that it was too short for his wife to hang herself with. Therefore, someone had to hang her and then put the chair underneath so anyone else would think it was suicide...

83. On her first birthday she turned eight. How could this be?

Clues: Think about calendar anomalies (really complex ones)...

Solution: She was born on February 29, 1896. Since only centuries divisible by 400 are leap years, the year 1900 was not a leap year. Thus, the next February 29th was in 1904, when she turned eight...

84. Everyday a woman takes the bus to work. She can get off at one of two stops. The first stop is 100 metres from the office building in which she works. The second stop is 200 metres past the building. She always rides past the first stop, and gets off at the second. Why?

Clues: Think topographically...

Solution: Her office building is on a hill. When she gets off at the stop farthest from the building she is walking downhill...

85. Those who make them don't need them. Those who buy them don't want them. And those who use them don't know it. What are they?

Clues: Those who use them are dead...

Solution: Headstones...

86. Mr Jones broke his leg on Saturday afternoon. He was immediately attended to by expert medical practitioners, and suffered no other injury. Sadly, he died later that day as a result. Why?

Clues: He was killed because he broke his leg. Mr Jones is not human...

Solution: Mr Jones is a racehorse, who was put down...

87. Mr Smith, who doesn't like what passes for art these days, ran into the National Gallery and caused millions of dollars in damage to several masterpieces. Later that day, he was invited to meet the manager and was warmly thanked for his actions. Why?

Clues: He was doing his job - the fact that he does not like art has nothing to do with it...

Solution: Mr Smith is a fireman. The water from his hose damaged the paintings as he put out a fire in the Gallery...

88. A man is standing on the platform of a train station. As a train pulls out of the station, he sees a woman aboard it waving. He runs over to the train, gets on it and kills the woman. He gets off the train, goes to police and confesses to the murder. He then walks away from the police station without consequence. Why?

Clues: He knew the woman very well, and had good reason to dislike her. This puzzle involves a legal technicality...

Solution: The woman was the man's wife. Years ago she faked her own death and framed her husband. Her husband was convicted and served time for murder. In the country where this occurred, a person can not be prosecuted for the same crime twice. Since he had already served time, he could not be sentenced again...

89. A man sits dead at his desk, with a wound in his back. On the desk are his work papers and a glass of red water. The door is open, and footprints lead to the back of his chair. How did he die?

Clues: It is winter. The water is red because there is blood in it...

Solution: Since it is winter, and the assailant broke off an icicle before entering the house. He stabbed the man with the icicle, and left it in the glass (bloodstained), where it eventually became the red water...

90. On the way to work a woman stops at a shop and makes a purchase. She continues to her workplace, where she is accidentally killed. Her purchase is directly related to her death. What is her occupation?

Clues: She bought a clothing item. Her job, which consisted of a performance in front of many people, was VERY dangerous...

Solution: She was the assistant to the knife-thrower at the circus. One of his performances was to burst a balloon attached to the top of his assistant's head whilst blindfolded. She had bought a pair of shoes which were slightly higher than her previous pair. She died from a knife wound to the head...

91. A wizard has two white helmets and three black helmets that he shows to three gnomes. The gnomes close their eyes, and the wizard places a white helmet on the first gnome, and a black helmet on the last two. They open their eyes and the wizard asks them what colour helmet they are wearing. After a moment, the last gnome announces that his helmet is black. How does he know?

Clues: The gnomes cannot see the colour of their own helmets. The key is in the moment of pause...

Solution: If the last gnome had been wearing a white helmet, then the second-last gnome (with the other black helmet) would have immediately answered "black". Since there was a moment's pause, the last gnome knew his helmet had to be black...

92. The only child of a wealthy couple is kidnapped and held for ransom. The criminal demanded that a large, valuable diamond be left in a certain telephone booth in a certain park. The police, suspecting that the criminal will have an accomplice waiting in the park, surround it with plainclothes detectives in order to follow the accomplice back to the criminal. However, this clever kidnapper was not caught. How did he get away?

Clues: There was an accomplice in the park, and the criminal did recover the diamond without being caught. The accomplice was very unusual...

Solution: The criminal had a carrier-pigeon waiting in the phone booth, along with instructions to place the diamond in a small bag around the bird's neck and set it free. The carrier-pigeon knew its way back to the criminal. Not expecting this, the detectives were powerless to follow the bird...

93. An old man was searching the forest frantically for an oligole when a change in the weather forced him to leave. This caused the oligole's extinction. How?

Clues: The oligole was a species of animal. The oligole drowned...

Solution: The old man was Noah, looking for a second oligole to take on the Ark. When it started to rain, he had to leave, distraught...

94. Two people are going skydiving. One of them is a skydiving instructor, and the other is going for the first time. They both jump out of the plane, and tragically neither of their parachutes open. The instructor dies and the first-timer survives. How is this possible?

Clues: The instructor dies immediately upon impacting the ground; the first-timer walks away completely uninjured. Nothing cushions the first-timer's descent...

Solution: The first-timer got scared and jumped out of the plane before it took off. The instructor went on and made a routine jump but when the chute didn't open, he did not survive the impact...

95. Early one morning a man peers into his neighbour's garbage bin before driving off to work in some irritation. The following week he peers into his other neighbour's garbage bin before driving off in an even more irritated frame of mind. Why was he irritated?

Clues: There is NOTHING in either bin each time he looks in. He has no quarrel with either neighbour. He wanted to see something in each bin...

Solution: He looked into bins on successive Mondays, the day for garbage collection on his street. He had forgotten to put his bin out on each Monday, and was irritated that he had forgotten to do so. The bins of his neighbours were empty (hence the garbage had been collected)...

96. Mary and John were very close. She watched as he boarded the 3:15 flight from Sydney to Adelaide. She then drove home from the airport and sat back to enjoy a movie. After about a half hour, the movie was interrupted by a news flash. The 3:15 flight from Sydney to Adelaide had crashed, with no survivors. Although Mary loved John very much, she continued to happily watch her movie. How come?

Clues: John did not die as a result of the crash. He was on the 3:15 for the total duration of the flight...

Solution: The movie Mary was watching had been taped the previous week on her video recorder. Since the news flash was a week old, John was safe...

97. A painter was hired to repaint the water tower for the township of Dubbo. The tower was located just off a busy street in the downtown area. Every day for 2 weeks the man painted diligently, but was never seen working by anyone and no change was noticed on the tower. At the end of the two weeks, the painter was was thanked and paid a large sum by the city. Why?

Clues: NO-ONE expected to see the painter doing his job. He was a very honest and conscientious painter...

Solution: The painter was hired to repaint the protective coating inside the watertower...

98. Mr Murphy wanted a new house built for him. He wanted to see the sun shine into every room, so he told the contractor to build his house so that all the walls face north. The igenious builder actually managed to do this. How?

Clues: Think about geographical anomalies...

Solution: The contractor built the house at the South Pole...

99. Mr Miller had lived in the same house for many decades. One day Mr Miller returned home to find it engulfed in flames. The fire department was on the scene, but they made no attempt to save Mr Miller's house. Even though he is in tears, Mr Miller says nothing. What is going on?

Clues: The house could have been saved if the fire department had acted. Mr Miller IS crying because his home is burning down...

Solution: Mr Miller instructed the fire department to destroy his house to make way for the construction of a new house. As Mr Miller watches his home burn he is overcome with fond memories and begins to weep...

100. Mr MacDonald had a farm. On this farm lived many workers. One day as a direct result of Mr MacDonald's drinking, a terrible tragedy befell his farm. Many workers lost their lives, and much work was undone. Mr MacDonald went on as though nothing had happened and he was never questioned about the incident. Why?

Clues: The farm is a very unusual farm. The dead workers were not buried - in fact, they were cannibalised by their fellow-workers...

Solution: Mr MacDonald accidentally spilled a large glass of water on his ant farm...

101. Jason (aged 6) and Jeremy (aged 7) are seated on the living room couch, watching a very explicit, XXX rated movie. Their father, Kevin, enters the room and sits down on the couch next to them. Kevin is a good father and not at all immoral. Kevin speaks to them, but says nothing about the porno movie that all three are now watching. How come?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: Jason, Jeremy and Kevin are all dogs...

102. Romeo is looking down on Juliet's dead body. She died of suffocation. What has happened?

Clues: Neither Romeo nor Juliet are human. Romeo looks VERY pleased...

Solution: Romeo is the household cat, and Juliet is a goldfish. Romeo has knocked Juliet's bowl off its stand...

103. Jason is lying dead. He has an iron bar across his back, and some food in front of him. How did he die?

Clues: Jason is very small, and is not human...

Solution: Jason is a mouse, in a mouse trap...

104. A policeman is walking past a house. He hears somone scream out, "Don't shoot me, John! Don't shoot!", followed by a gunshot. The policeman enters the house and sees a lawyer, a priest, and an engineer, all gathered around a dead body. The priest was immediately arrested. How did the policeman know?

Clues: Which one is John? And what are you assuming?

Solution: Both the engineer and lawyer were women. The priest was a man, so the policeman was fairly sure that he was the one referred to as "John"...

105. A man walked into a bar, and before he could say a word, he was knocked unconscious. Why?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: The bar was an iron bar...

106. An elderly man gets up in the morning and shaves. He then puts on his glasses, and sees himself in the mirror. However, when he looks in the mirror, he sees himself with no glasses and a beard. How come?

Clues: He is still clean-shaven with glasses. The "mirror" is not an ordinary mirror...

Solution: He is reading The Daily Mirror and sees a picture of himself as he was 20 years earlier...

107. Two men were drinking in a pub. Two women walked in. The first man said, "I have to go, my wife and daughter are here." The second man turned around and said, "I have to go too, my wife and daughter just arrived as well." How is this possible?

Clues: No-one else has walked in apart from these two women. The men are not married to the same woman...

Solution: The two men in question were both widowers with a daughter from a previous marriage. They both married the other's daughter...

108. A windowless room has 3 light bulbs. Three switches are outside the room, and each switch operates one of the bulbs inside. If you only enter the room once, how can you determine which bulb is connected to which switch?

Clues: Think about what happens to a light bulb when you turn it on...

Solution: Turn the first switch "On" and leave it "On". Turn the second switch "On", leave it for a few minutes before turning it "Off". Don't touch the third switch - leave it "Off". When you walk into the room, the light bulb for the first switch will be "On", the bulb for the second switch will be "Off" but still warm, and the bulb for the third will be "Off" and cold...

109. Why do Chinese men eat more rice than Japanese men?

Clues: What are you assuming?

Solution: There are more of them...