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Realistic Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Lateral Thinking Puzzles, unlike most puzzles, are inexact. In a sense, they are a hybrid between puzzles and storytelling. In each puzzle, some clues to a scenario are given, but the clues don't tell the full story. Your job is to fill in the details and complete the story. Obviously, there is usually more than one answer to any given puzzle, but, in general, only one solution is truly satisfying.

You can try solving these puzzles on your own -- that's certainly a legitimate way to go about this -- but usually you can have more fun if you involve other people. The way this works is, you look at the answer (maybe you want to try the puzzle on your own first!), then read just the clues to your friends. Your friends must determine the answer by asking questions about it, which you may answer only with yes, no, or doesn't matter. You can adjust the difficulty of the puzzle by varying the initial clues, throwing in red herrings, and so forth.

Warning: For some reason, these puzzles have a tendency to be rather morbid.

The scenarios given on this page are realistic, if unlikely. The clues can all be taken at face value, although that's not to say their implications can't be misleading.

#11

A man is found hanging in an otherwise empty locked room with a puddle of water under his feet.

Solution

#12

A man is dead in a puddle of blood and water on the floor of an otherwise empty locked room.

Solution

#13

A man is lying dead, face down in the desert. He's wearing a backpack.

Solution

#14

A man is lying dead, face down in the desert. There's a match near his outstretched hand.

Solution

#15

A man is driving his car. He turns on the radio, listens for five minutes, turns around, goes home, and shoots his wife.

Solution

#16

A man is driving his car. He turns on the radio, then pulls over to the side of the road and shoots himself.

Solution

#17

The music stops, and a woman dies.

Solution

#18

A man is dead in a room with a small pile of wood chips and sawdust in the corner.

Solution

#19

There's a flash of light, and a man dies.

Solution

#20
Tough one!

A rope breaks. A bell rings. A man dies.

Solution