Challenging Riddles

12

I have an end but no beginning, a home but no family, a space without room. I never speak but there is no word I cannot make. What am I?

5

A blacksmith has many apprentices working for him, and as a reoccurring game, every so week one of them succeeds at forging a key to let loose his pet monkey. The monkey goes wild, throwing stuff and breaking things until the blacksmith finally recages him and puts on a different lock. The ordeal has become costly. The blacksmith scolds the apprintices and makes them do the monkey catching, and puts them to extra work. The apprentices do find the extra work bothersome, yet they continue to pick the locks, releasing the monkey. The blacksmith is at his wit's end. He makes more and more complex locks, but everytime, one of his apprentices succeeds in solving it. The blacksmith asks for your advice. What should he do? He doesn't want to sell his pet monkey, nor does he have another place for it to stay.

4

After signing a potential payment written in a foreign language that he could not read, a man went and stood in a covered room, waiting for somebody he last met a week ago. That person came to the man with their face partly covered, and circled him, staring. The man handed the person an object. Then, moving away, he stepped on a piece of glass and heard a shout. What was shouted?

3

It’s ancient China and there are two emperors. As there can only be one emperor, they are about to go to war. They have all their armies and ships ready to fight. However, instead of fighting, they agree to decide the outcome with a philosophical battle where they will each have their best philosopher answer the question: What is the ultimate truth? The philosophers will privately present their answer to panel of judges, who will decide the winner. The first emperor tells his best philosopher the situation, and that he has three months to prepare his presentation. That philosopher doesn’t know the ultimate truth, but works as hard as he can on the problem for three months. Three months later, he still doesn’t know, but it's time to present, so he does his best. He introduces his idea and all the relevant background for three hours, and then finally says, “the ultimate truth is that something is.” He then goes out of the room, while the other philosopher gives his presentation. Three hours later, the first emperor goes to his philosopher, says, “we lost” and offers him a drink, which the philosopher knows is poison because he failed. The question is, what did the other philosopher say?

6

One day a man is captured and put unjustly to trial for committing depraved crimes, none of which he had actually done. The corrupt system allows this man to be executed, but in a show of a facade of mercy, the evil Queen of the land tells the denizens of the land that she will allow this man to live he can pass the Marble Trial. The rules of the trial are as follows: One: The prisoner is to blindly pick from the jar one of two types of marbles, of which there is only one of each. Two: The black one, if chosen, represents death and thus he will be executed. Three: The white one, if chosen, will let him go free. Normally in the Marble Trial, there are different quantities of marbles depending on the severity of the crimes, but for this event, the Queen announces that there will be only 2. one Black and one White. Or at least, the Queen merely announced that to the public. In a private chat leading up to the Marbel Trial, the Queen actually revealed to the man that she never actually intends for the man to survive, and that the Marbel Trial's Jar is rigged to contain 2 black marbles instead of the proper arrangement. The next day, the man finds himself in a huge arena filled with cheering crowds curious as to how he will fare in the trial- unaware that the trial is rigged in the first place. Without a way to speak to the audience as he will be killed on the spot if he doesn't immediately pick from the jar, how does the man survive?

9

A man dies and leaves his heir to his two sons. In the fathers testament, he says that they must do a race with their horses, and the one with the slowest horse will receive the inheritance. The two sons do a race, but they never finish it, as they keep holding their horses back. Therefore they go to an oracle and ask what they should do. Later on the brothers race, going at full speed. What did the oracle answer?

6

Riddle me this. I am steel, yet still alive. I have emotions, yet I cannot feel. I have movement yet cannot move. I have a skeleton which is not my own. Who am I?

2

In times of crisis, I am priceless. I’m illegal, yet permissible. Enemies call me despicable.. But what is my profession? That is the question. Concealed among bureaucrats, who administer resources, diplomats. Researchers and scholars affected, distrust spreads, disconnected. My identity I hide, but with you I confide. Or have I left you eyeless, With my politeness?

18

This puzzle is a poem (of sorts) that requires a six-letter word in each line. The six letters never change except in their order: "A ... sat on his ... grey, watching the ... of parting day, and this was his lay: 'Thou ... the weak, Thou ... the strong, to Thee the ... of battles belong.' And the wind with a ... bore off his song."

12

The civil cage me with impediments, But I’ve turned captains to skeletons. Let me loose as you read this, And I’ll kill artificial intelligence… Three years ago they found me, In the back-bones of the helix, Eighteen ago I killed a visitor, In the Night vision of a Phoenix… I slaughtered the pestilence, Of Adamah’s residents. Only sparing a few, On a vessel of eminence… And though some turn to drums, As the sky flashes, to save me, I've killed fluttering red, white, and blue, Yet every one of you craves me... what am I?

9

What you're looking for ... I'll hide it from you. However if you ask, I'll lead you right through. You're tempted to cross me, an act I won't prevent... If chosen too soon, may come with regret. If I'm not there you're mad, you ask for me to be. This time for a change, I'll be right behind me. What am I?

4

When I have one O, you need me to live. If you have me with two Os, I’ll kill you. What am I?

3

"My favorite treasure", said the king unbidden; Many I have, each of them hidden--; One with a chest, without a key; One with a wall, small though it be; One in a garden with what grows on vines; One in the forest with trees that are pine; Others types there are, but these clues are enough. Can you tell me the treasure, or is it too tough?

1

What bleeds that cannot die? What may deceive, but cannot lie? Lacking volume, weight, and height, It may be deep, or flat, or light. Outside the mind, it can’t exist, Yet everywhere you look, it is. What is it?

8

I have a name, but it isn't my name. My face shows signs of age. I always mean the same thing, no matter what I say. I'm born in mourning, and I last 'til the end of days. Men plant me, but I never grow. They run from me, but I never move. They look at me and see their future, rotting in the fields where I bloom. What am I?