Lateral Thinking Puzzles #2

Here are some more lateral thinking puzzles:

1. One morning, one of Elsie's earrings fell into her coffee. Even though her cup was full, the ring did not get wet. Why?
2. An elementary school principal noticed one of the teachers at the school was very inebriated and using language unsuitable for children. Yet he did not fire her or take any type of disciplinary action against her. Why?
3. A man picked up his rifle and hung up his hat, and someone blindfolded him. The man walked 100 yards, turned around and shot a bullet straight through his hat. How did he do it?
4. There are ten glasses arranged in a row. The first five are filled with water, and the next five are empty. By moving only two glasses, can you make a row in which the full and empty glasses alternate?
5. A young man has two girlfriends, one of whom lives on the north end of town and the other lives on the south end of town. To visit the girl on the north end of town, he walks to a nearby bus stop takes an express bus headed north. To visit the girl on the south end of town, he walks to the same stop and takes an express bus headed south. He reaches the bus stop at a random time each Saturday. As he likes both girls equally well, he simply takes the first bus that comes along. Northbound and southbound buses arrive equally often, every 10 minutes. However, he finds himself spending time with the girl on the north end of town nine times out of ten. Why would this be the case?
6. A horse is tied to a 30-foot long rope. A haystack is 80 feet away. However, the horse is able to eat the hay, even though the rope does not break or stretch in any way. How could this be?
7. Before going to bed every night, a man carefully locked all of the doors of the house, and then placed the key inside a bucket of cold water. In the morning he retrieved the key from the bucket in order to open the doors. Why did he do this?
8. One morning the top story in the Smithdale newspaper was of a local woman who had died after a skiing accident in the Swiss Alps. Her husband had been the only witness when she skied over a precipice and fell to her death. A clerk in the city read the story and called the police, and the husband was arrested on suspicion of murder. However, the clerk did not know either the woman or her husband personally and did not suspect foul play until he read about the accident in the newspaper. Why did the clerk call the police?
9. Chico lives out in the country. He enjoys running and does so on a track on the property. He is able to run 400 meters in around 40 seconds. The current world record for the 400 metre dash is around 43 seconds. A sprinting coach for the national Olympic team lives next door, is aware of Chico's speed, and wants to improve his team's performance in the next Olympics, but has never shown any interest in recruiting Chico for the team or or in connecting Chico with another coach. Why?
10. A police officer saw a taxi driver going the wrong way down a one-way street, but made no attempt to stop him. Why?

The answers can be found at Lateral Thinking Puzzles #2 Answers. Need a hint?

If you enjoyed these puzzles, there are other pages of lateral thinking puzzles on this site. See also the first page of lateral thinking puzzles or the third page of lateral thinking puzzles, the fourth page, or the fifth page.