Brain Teasers
One Pair Out of Ten
A very mean king went to a nearby village. He wanted some more slaves to serve him at his royal palace. He decided that if any family in the village had more than five children, he would take them. A cobbler and his wife had ten children. When the king came to take them, the cobbler and his wife begged and begged. Finally the king said, "I see that you have ten pairs of shoes in a box. If you can give each of your children a pair and still leave one pair out of ten in the box, you can keep your children. The cobbler and his wife began to smile at each other. How did they keep all of their children?
Answer
The cobbler and his wife gave each of his nine children a pair of shoes. That left one pair in the box. They then gave this tenth child the box with the shoes in it.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Another variation on an old chestnut.
Really clever teaser. You stumped me.
I'm tired of it when teasers are just manipulated to look like new ones.
Really gr88 teasers..
Were they sneakers? Because this tricky one surely was. Neat job.
Very funny!
Nice one! I love the teasers that make me laugh when I read them. This one did the trick!
I thought they had the child stand in the box...Oh well, close enough. =]
Dec 05, 2006
HA HA HA! THTA WAS VERY FUNNY
Have the kid stand in the box with his shoes on.
Easy but fun!
I was thinking of two answers. 1. They kids had more then one pare of shoes. 2. they made more shoes.
LLLLLOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLlLL
you tricked me -_-
nice one!
you tricked me -_-
nice one!
Good one, sheri!
I was thinking along the same line as lukeschett
liked it!!!!!! keep it up!
Great teaser! Sure tricked me!
really origional!
I had him stand in the box too. Same difference.
Excellent!!!
Had to really think about it!!
Had to really think about it!!
i saw it in "Super cool jokes and games for kids" ages ago by Bob Phillips... lol
I can't believe I got that one.
So did solving this one require thinking outside the box or inside the box? Either way, it stumped me.
I was thinking along the same line of thinking as some of the others have. Stumped me!!
This one was cute and funny!!
This one was cute and funny!!
Another easy riddle and your answer can go anywaay think more next time!!!!
This was cute. Really easy, but cute.
Totally Awesome teaser! The teaser would have fooled me, but I have a super tricky old man, who enjoys throwing situations at me, constantly and I have had this one before. Keep up the tremendously super work!
Fun one! Not too hard not too easy for a half asleep brain!
Jan 05, 2007
It was an ok teaser but it was kinda retarted but thats just my opinion. It was sort of funny tho
Awesome teaser! Well done!
Such a mean king!!! I wonder if they could escape from him with a such a trick!!! congrats, u tricked me...
Clever!
Got me! But, verrrrrry interesting.
I answered that one of the children had died, so there was enough children to have one pair left over.
Cool i liked it. it made me think and then i found out the answer! i am smart!!!
that was a good 1 keep em' comin'
There were too many variations on this one to make it fun. How about the parents? Did they have shoes. Could they have dumped their shoes in the box?
INTUITIVELY OBVIOUS!
i thought they made more shoes! GREAT TEASER!!!
Very easy but still pretty fun!
I knew it before I finished reading it!!
I knew it before I finished reading it!!
but u said that each child had to have a pai of shoes not a box.....it doesn't make sense
I thought that perhaps one/two i guess of them were Siamese twins or something with only on set of legs between them but that is what happens when you think outside the dodecahedron
what so the tenth child kept the box not the pair of shoes?
I have to admit, you got me! Very clever.
I didn't think outside the box!! Good teaser
i don't get it
Ok, I went back and read it again, duh!
I thought that one of the parents took off their shoes and put it in one of the boxes.
I guess that some riddles just come with more than one answer.
I guess that some riddles just come with more than one answer.
that was a good one.
i dnt get it!!! grrrrr..... plez explain?????
ha i reread it... i get it now. nice one
I'm snot sure if I get this one...
Wasn't every child supposed to have a pair of "Shoes"?
Did the box substitute as the shoes?
Couldn't they have just had another pair of shoes laying around?
I still don't understand
Wasn't every child supposed to have a pair of "Shoes"?
Did the box substitute as the shoes?
Couldn't they have just had another pair of shoes laying around?
I still don't understand
OOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!
Okay, I get it.
Okay, I get it.
KINDA CONFUSING...
ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
clever
I liked it. Hope to see more like it.
haha!!
Great teaser! I thought it was one of Indi's!
LOL!!! That was a great teaser! I thought the answer was that 2 children shared a pair!!!
Yeah I was thinking that one of the parents put there shoes int the box but that obviously can't be an answer because it says 1 out of 10 pair of shoes must remain in the box. adding a parents shoes would make it 1 out of 11 pairs..
but really good one.
but really good one.
assuming that the older people had shoes, they could have given the children their shoes.
Great!
I thought that one of the kids was a baby and they put the shoes on and put the baby in the box....
similar to a one I heard before, but nice storyline
As Sherlock would say-Very elementray my dear.
NICE!!!
Cute, I thought maybe one child was too young to walk and didn't need shoes to wear. That was all I could come up with.
So tired out and old is this one, but apparently some have never seen it before! It is not even a good one and that is only my opinion!
I liked it.
Yes, this one was pretty easy!
To those who don't understand: 9 children each pulled a pair of shoes out of the box. The tenth child took the box, that still had one pair of shoes inside of it. Thus, each kid had a pair of shoes, but one had a pairr that was still inside the box.
GS = 4
My solutrion: The cobbler and his wife gave each of their children a pair of shoes, but then had one child, wearing his/her pair of shoes, stand in the box that had held the 10 pairs of shoes, so that the shoes were in the box, but also on the feet of the child.
Usually I'm terrible at these kinds of teasers but for some oddball reason it came to me right away.
I dont usually object to repeats but really, 7 times in 10 years? Maybe a maximum number of repeat appearances could be established.
I really had to think "outside the box" to get this one.
my solution was the same as lukasiwicz'
my solution was the same as lukasiwicz'
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