Problem Solving by Lateral Thinking

1. What can you hold in your right hand, but not in your left?
Your left hand, forearm or elbow.

2. How many animals of each species did Moses take into the Ark?
None. NOAH built the Ark

3. A man built a rectangular house, each side having a southern view. He spotted a bear. What color was the bear?
White, because it’s a polar bear. Only at the North Pole can all four walls be facing south.

4. Two fathers took their sons fishing. Each man and son caught one fish, but when they returned to camp there were only 3 fish. How could this be? (None of the fish were eaten, lost, or thrown back.)
There were only three people. The son, his father, and his grandfather.

5. If you were alone in a deserted house at night, and there was an oil lantern, a candle, a lamp and a matchbox with only one match stick, which would you, light first?
The match stick!

6. A graduate applying for pilot training with a major airline was asked what would be his reaction, if after a long-haul flight to Sidney, he saw the captain wearing a Saree and applying lipstick and mascara?
His reaction should be indifferent. The captain was a woman. Many airlines are now hot on equal opportunities and a candidate who has difficulty envisaging that an airline captain might be female will not go very far!

7. Which side of a cat contains the most hair?
The outside

8. The 1st and 4th CEO of a MNC had the same mother and father, but were not brothers. How can this be possible?
The 1st and 4th CEO is the same person

9. A Black man is wearing Black shoes, socks, trousers, coat, gloves and ski mask. He is walking down a back street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?
It was day time

10. How many birthdays does a typical woman have?
One

11. A peasant is convicted and gets the death penalty. The judge allows him to say a last sentence in order to determine the way the penalty will be carried out. If what the peasant says is false, he will be hanged, if he speaks the truth he will be beheaded. The peasant speaks a last sentence and to everybody surprises some minutes later he is set free because the judge cannot determine his penalty.
What did the peasant said?
The peasant said: “I shall be hanged!”
If what the peasant said was false, he would be hanged. But that’s what the peasant was saying. So he speaks the truth. But if he speaks the truth, he would be beheaded, so then he was not speaking the truth. So it is impossible for the judge to determine whether the peasant speaks the truth or not. So therefore the judge cannot determine the penalty and sets the peasant free.

12. Why it is illicit to bury a man in Bihar, if he is living in kolkata.
Because he is still alive.

13. To the nearest cubic centimeter, how much soil is there in a 5m x 3m x 2m hole?
None - it’s a hole!

14. If you drove a coach leaving Esplanade with 35 passengers, dropped off 6 and picked up 2 at Central, picked up 9 more at M.G.Road, dropped off 3 at Maniktala,and then drove on to arrive in Kankurgachi 1 hr 40 minutes later, what is the name of the driver ?YOU are the driver!

15. A woman lives on the tenth floor of a block of flats. Every morning she takes the lift down to the ground floor and goes to work. In the evening, she gets into the lift, and, if there is someone else in the lift she goes back to her floor directly. Otherwise, she goes to the eighth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to her flat. How do you explain this?
The woman is of small stature and couldn’t reach the upper lift buttons