Riddle 7
The young couple come to the priest to determine the date of the wedding. The priest explains that they first have to give announcements, that they have to be read out for two consecutive Sundays, and that only then can they get married.
Young: So maybe it was the 15th?
Priest: I’ll check a moment, … no, 15 – I go to a neighbouring parish to help with confession, 16 – the confession of communion children, then the funeral, the mass… I think that you will only be able to get married on 17th.
Young: good, then we set 17.
What is improbable in this story?
A typical question for sobriety of thinking and evaluation of the situation. Such tasks are given to candidates for senior positions or where a cool, analytical mind is required.
In this type of task, each element must be logically analyzed individually, sometimes in combination with other distant elements, and the illogicality of the message must be captured. In this task, a funeral causes a rasp of logic: After all, no one is planning a funeral two weeks ahead.
Puzzle 8
The man was found dead in his own workshop. He was lying on the ground not far from his desk, with a hole in his head. When the policeman arrived at the scene, he pressed the “Verizon” button on the tape recorder on his desk and heard:
– My life is nothing, I have no life for whom.
The sound of the shot was still there. The policeman immediately knew that the man had not committed suicide, but had been murdered.
The question is: How did the policeman know that the man had been murdered?
Another question requiring logical analysis. The man could not shoot himself in the head and then undo the tape to start his speech. In the content of the puzzle we are informed that the policeman only pressed the “Play” button. It was the murderer who had to retract the tape after the murder.
Puzzle 9
You drive alone at night in a storm. You pass the bus stop and see three people waiting for the bus:
An old woman who looks as if she is just dying,
2. your good friend, who once saved your life,
A wonderful woman, exactly the way you’ve always dreamt of it.
Who would you propose to take, assuming you have only one free seat in the car?
You can take a dying old lady and save her life.
You can take a friend and repay him for saving your life, but then you may find that you will never meet your dream love again…
You can take a woman and live a long and happy life with her.
Who will you take with you?
A typical moral and ethical problem aimed at assessing a candidate’s system of values. Usually there is no single appropriate answer. We simply need to speak out in favour of something. However, let us try to find a golden middle. This is another element which is assessed by the recruiters: whether the candidate goes for an easy visa, or can find a consensus. In this case, we find the best possible solution that satisfies everyone. Well, we give a car to a friend to take his grandmother to the hospital and we stay with a dream woman.
Another moral and ethical problem may be the question:
If your future boss and your own son were to fall into the abyss, and you could only save one person, who would you save?